EVERY  BOY'S  LIBRARY— BOY  SCOUT  EDITION 


rHEBIOGRAPHYOFA  GRIZZLY 


IS  Drawings 
ERNEST  THOMPSON  SETON  * 


lofiheS&ndhillSf&g 
Wild  Animals!  H*ve  Known 
of  Animus 


Published  by  Grossct  &  Dunlap,  New  York 


Copyright,  1899,  1900,  by 

The  Century  Co. 

Copyright,  1900,  by 

Ernest  Se ton-Thompson. 


First 
Impression 
Apri, 

1900 

Sixth 
Impression 
May 

1903 

Eleventh 
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November 
1 
1912 

Second 
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November 
26 
1900 

Seventh 
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May 
10 
1904 

Twelfth 
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September 
29 
1914 

Third 
I  mpression 
January 

1901 

Eighth 
Impression 
February 

1906 

Thirteenth 
Impression 
October 
11 
1916 

Fourth 
Impression 
June 
20 
1901 

Ninth 
Impression 
October 
4 
1907 

Fourteenth 
Impression 
January 
29 
1918 

Fifth 
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April 

1902 

Tenth 
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June 

1910 

Fifteenth 
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June 

1919 

College 
Library 


This  Book  is  dedicated  to  the 
memory  of  the  days  spent  at 
the  Palette  Ranch  on  the  Gray- 
bull,  where  from  hunter,  miner, 
personal  experience,  and  the 
host  himself,  I  gathered  many 
chapters  of  the  History  of  Wahb. 


1G60070 


In  this  Book  the  designs  for  title- 
page,  cover,  and  general  make- 
up, were  done  by  Mrs.  Grace 
Gallatin  Thompson  Seton. 


List  of 
Full- Page  Drawings 

r* 

Pa^e 

They  all  Rushed  Under  it  like  a  Lot 

of  Little  Pigs 14 

Like  Children  Playing 'Hands'.     .     .     18 
He  Stayed  in  the  Tree  till  near  Morn- 
ing     ....•  32 

A  Savage  Bobcat  .  .  .  Warned  Him  to 

go  Back 44 

Wahb  Yelled  and  Jerked  Back  .  .  50 
He  Struck  one  Fearful,  Crushing  Blow  74 
Ain't  He  an  Awful  Size,  Though?  .  .  90 
Wahb  Smashed  His  Skull  ....  102 
Causing  the  Pool  to  Overflow  .  .  .113 
He  Deliberately  Stood  up  on  the  Pine 

Root 142 

The  Roachback  Fled  into  the  Woods.  150 
He  Paused  a  Moment  at  the  Gate  .  165 


PART  I 

THE  CUBHOOD  OF  WAHB 


I 


was  born  over  a 
score  of  years  ago, 
away  up  in  the  wild- 
est part  of  the  wild 
West,  on  the  head  of 
the  Little  Piney,  above  where  the 
Palette  Ranch  is  now. 

His  Motherwas  just  an  ordinary 
Silvertip,  living  the  quiet  life  that 
all  Bears  prefer,  minding  her  own 
business  and  doing  her  duty  by  her 
family,  asking  no  favors  of  any  one 
excepting  to  let  her  alone. 


It  was  July  before  she  took  her 
remarkable  family  down  the  Little 
Piney  to  the  Graybull,  and  showed 
them  what  strawberries  were,  and 
where  to  find  them. 

Notwithstanding  their  Mother's 
deep  conviction,  the  cubs  were  not 
remarkably  big  or  bright;  yet  they 
were  a  remarkable  family,  for  there 
were  four  of  them,  and  it  is  not 
often  a  Grizzly  Mother  can  boast 
of  more  than  two. 

The  woolly-coated  little  crea- 
tures were  having  a  fine  time,  and 
reveled  in  the  lovely  mountain  sum- 
mer and  the  abundance  of  good 
things.  Their  Mother  turned  over 
each  log  and  flat  stone  they  came 
to,  and  the  moment  it  was  lifted 
they  all  rushed  under  it  like  a  lot 


"THEY  ALL  RUSHED  UNDER  IT  LIKE  A   LOT  OF  LITTLE   PIGS.' 


of  little  pigs  to  lick  up  the  ants  and 
grubs  there  hidden. 

It  never  once  occurred  to  them 
that  Mammy's  strength  might  fail 
sometime,  and  let  the  great  rock 
drop  just  as  they  got  under  it;  nor 
would  any  one  have  thought  so 
that  might  have  Chanced  to  see 
that  huge  arm  and  that  shoulder 
sliding  about  under  the  great  yel- 
low robe  she  wore.  No,  no;  that 
arm  could  never  fail.  The  little 
ones  were  quite  right.  So  they 
hustled  and  tumbled  one  another 
at  each  fresh  log  in  their  haste  to 
be  first,  and  squealed  little  squeals, 
and  growled  little  growls,  as  if  each 
was  a  pig,  a  pup,  and  a  kitten  all 
rolled  into  one. 

They  were  well  acquainted  with 


the  common  little  brown  ants  that 
harbor  under  logs  in  the  uplands, 
but  now  they  came  for  the  first  time 
on  one  of  the  hills  of  the  great,  fat, 
luscious  Wood-ant,  and  they  all 
crowded  around  to  lick  up  those 
that  ran  out.  But  they  soon  found 
that  they  were  licking  up  more  cac- 
tus-prickles and  sand  than  ants,  till 
their  Mother  said  in  Grizzly,  "  Let 
me  show  you  how." 

She  knocked  off  the  top  of  the 
hill,  then  laid  her  great  paw  flat  on 
it  for  a  few  moments,  and  as  the 
angry  ants  swarmed  on  to  it  she 
licked  them  up  with  one  lick,  and 
got  a  good  rich  mouthful  to  crunch, 
without  a  grain  of  sand  or  a  cactus- 
stinger  in  it.  The  cubs  soon  learned. 
Each  put  up  both  his  little  brown 
paws,  so  that  there  was  a  ring  of 
paws  all  around  the  ant-hill,  and 


,w 


"LIKE  CHILDREN   PLAYING   'HANDS." 


there  they  sat,  like  children  playing 
1  hands/  and  each  licked  first  the 
right  and  then  the  left  paw,  or  one 
cuffed  his  brother's  ears  for  licking 
a  paw  that  was  not  his  own,  till  the 
ant-hill  was  cleared  out  and  they 
were  ready  for  a  change. 

Ants  are  sour  food  and  made  the 
Bears  thirsty,  so  the  old  one  led 
down  to  the  river.  After  they  had 
drunk  as  much  as  they  wanted,  and 
dabbled  their  feet,  they  walked 
down  the  bank  to  a  pool,  where  the 
old  one's  keen  eye  caught  sight  of 
a  number  of  Buffalo-fish  basking 
on  the  bottom.  The  water  was  very 
low,  mere  pebbly  rapids  between 
these  deep  holes,  so  Mammy  said 
to  the  little  ones: 

"  Now  you  all  sit  there  on  the 
bank  and  learn  something  new." 

First  she  went  to  the  lower  end 


— •— *• 

fft 


of  the  pool  and  stirred  up  a  cloud 
of  mud  which  hung  in  the  still 
water,  and  sent  a  long  tail  floating 
like  a  curtain  over  the  rapids  just 
below.  Then  she  went  quietly 
round  by  land,  and  sprang  into  the 
upper  end  of  the  pool  with  all  the 
noise  she  could.  The  fish  had 
crowded  to  that  end,  but  this  sud- 
den attack  sent  them  off  in  a  panic, 
and  they  dashed  blindly  into  the 
mud-cloud.  Out  of  fifty  fish  there 
is  always  a  good  chance  of  some 
being  fools,  and  half  a  dozen  of 
these  dashed  through  the  darkened 
water  into  the  current,  and  before 
they  knew  it  they  were  struggling 
over  the  shingly  shallow.1  The  old 
Grizzly  jerked  them  out  to  the 
bank,  and  the  little  ones  rushed 


noisily  on  these  funny,  short  snakes 
that  could  not  get  away,  and  gob- 
bled and  gorged  till  their  little 
bellies  looked  like  balloons. 

They  had  eaten  so  much  now, 
and  the  sun  was  so  hot,  that  all 
were  quite  sleepy.  So  the  Mother- 
bear  led  them  to  a  quiet  little  nook, 
and  as  soon  as  she  lay  down,  though 
they  were  puffing  with  heat,  they 
all  snuggled  around  her  and  went 
to  sleep,  with  their  little  brown  paws 
curled  in,  and  their  little  black  noses 
tucked  into  their  wool  as  though  it 
were  a  very  cold  day. 

After  an  hour  or  two  they  began 
to  yawn  and  stretch  themselves, 
except  little  Fuzz,  the  smallest; 
she  poked  out  her  sharp  nose  for  a 
moment,  then  snuggled  back  be- 


• 


tween  her  Mother's  great  arms, 
for  she  was  a  gentle,  petted  little 
thing.  The  largest,  the  one  after- 
ward known  as  Wahb,  sprawled 
over  on  his  back  and  began  to 
worry  a  root  that  stuck  up,  grum- 
bling to  himself  as  he  chewed  it, 
or  slapped  it  with  his  paw  for  not 
staying  where  he  wanted  it.  Pres- 
ently Mooney,  the  mischief,  began 
tugging  at  Frizzle's  ears,  and  got 
his  own  well  boxed.  They  clenched 
for  a  tussle;  then,  locked  in  a 
tight,  little  grizzly  yellow  ball,  they 
sprawled  over  and  over  on  th  e  grass, 
and,  before  they  knew  it,  down  a 
bank,  and  away  out  of  sight  toward 
the  river. 

Almost  immediately  there  was 
an  outcry  of  yells  for  help  from  the 


little  wrestlers.  There  could  be  no 
mistaking  the  real  terror  in  their 
voices.  Some  dreadful  danger  was 
threatening. 

Up  jumped  the  gentle  Mother, 
changed  into  a  perfect  demon,  and 
over  the  bank  in  time  to  see  a  huge 
Range-bull  make  a  deadly  charge 
at  what  he  doubtless  took  for  a  yel- 
low dog.  In  a  moment  all  would 
have  been  over  with  Frizzle,  for  he 
had  missed  his  footing  on  the  bank; 
but  there  was  a  thumping  of  heavy 
feet,  a  roar  that  startled  even  the 
great  Bull,  and,  like  a  huge  bound- 
ing ball  of  yellow  fur,  Mother  Griz- 
zly was  upon  him.  Him !  the  mon- 
arch of  the  herd,  the  master  of  all 
these  plains,  what  had  he  to  fear? 
He  bellowed  his  deep  war-cry,  and 


charged  to  pin  the  old  one  to  the 
bank;  but  as  he  bent  to  tear  her 
with  his  shining  horns,  she  dealt 
him  a  stunning  blow,  and  before  he 
could  recover  she  was  on  his  shoul- 
ders, raking  the  flesh  from  his  ribs 
with  sweep  after  sweep  of  her  ter- 
rific claws. 

The  Bull  roared  with  rage,  and 
plunged  and  reared,  dragging  Mo- 
ther Grizzly  with  him;  then,  as  he 
hurled  heavily  off  the  slope>  she  let 
go  to  save  herself,  and  the  Bull 
rolled  down  into  the  river. 

This  was  a  lucky  thing  for  him, 
for  the  Grizzly  did  not  want  to  fol- 
low him  there ;  so  he  waded  out  on 
the  other  side,  and  bellowing  with 
fury  and  pain,  slunk  off  to  join  the 
herd  to  which  he  belonged. 


D  Colonel  Pickett, 
the  cattle  king,  was 
out  riding  the  range. 
The  night  before,  he 
had  seen  the  new- 
moon  descending  over  the  white 
cone  of  Pickett's  Peak. 

"  I  saw  the  last  moon  over  Frank's 
Peak,"  said  he, "  and  the  luck  was 
against  me  for  a  month;  now  I 
reckon  it's  my  turn." 

Next  morning  his  luck  began. 
A  letter  came  from  Washington 


granting  bis  request  that  a  post- 
office  be  established  at  his  ranch, 
and  contained  the  polite  inquiry, 
"What  name  do  you  suggest  for 
the  new  post-office?" 

The  Colonel  took  down  his  new 
rifle,  a  45-90  repeater.  "  May  as 
well,"  he  said ;  "this  is  my  month  " ; 
and  he  rode  up  the  Graybull  to  see 
how  the  cattle  were  doing. 
,  As  he  passed  underthe  Rimrock 
Mountain  he  heard  a  far-away  roar- 
ing as  of  Bulls  fighting,  but  thought 
nothing  of  it  till  he  rounded  the 
point  and  saw  on  the  flat  below  a 
lot  of  his  cattle  pawing  the  dust  and 
bellowing  as  they  always  do  when 
they  smell  the  blood  of  one  of  their 
number.  He  soon  saw  that  the 
great  Bull,  *  the  boss  of  the  bunch.* 


was  covered  with  blood.  His  back 
and  sides  were  torn  as  by  a  Moun- 
tain-lion, and  his  head  was  battered 
as  by  another  Bull. 

"  Grizzly/'  growled  the  Colonel, 
for  he  knew  the  mountains.  He 
quickly  noted  the  general  direction 
of  the  Bull's  back  trail,  then  rode 
toward  a  high  bank  that  offered  a 
view.  This  was  across  the  gravelly 
ford  of  the  Graybull,  near  the 
mouth  of  the  Piney.  His  horse 
splashed  through  the  cold  water 
and  began  jerkily  to  climb  the  other 
bank. 

As  soon  as  the  rider's  head  rose 
above  the  bank  his  hand  grabbed 
the  rifle,  for  there  in  full  sight  were 
five  Grizzly  Bears,  an  old  one  and 
four  cubs. 


"  Run  for  the  woods, Tt  growled 
the  Mother  Grizzly,  for  she  knew 
that  men  carried  guns.  Not  that 
she  feared  for  herself;  but  the  idea 
of  such  things  among  her  darlings 
was  too  horrible  to  think  of.  She 
set  off  to  guide  them  to  the  timber- 
tangle  on  the  Lower  Piney.  But 
an  awful,  murderous  fusillade  be- 
gan. 

®<™g!  and  Mother  Grizzly  felt 
a  deadly  pang. 

Rang!  and  poor  little  Fuzz  rolled 
over  with  a  scream  of  pain  and  lay 
still. 

With  a  roar  of  hate  and  fury 
Mother  Grizzly  turned  to  attack 
the  enemy. 

<Bang!  and  she  fell  paralyzed 
and  dying  with  a  high  shoulder 


shot.  And  the  three  little  cubs,  not 
knowing  what  to  do,  ran  back  to 
their  Mother. 

Bang!  bang!  and  Mooney  and 
Frizzle  sank  in  dying  agonies  be- 
side her,  and  Wahb,  terrified  and 
stupefied,  ran  in  a  circle  about 
them.  Then,  hardly  knowing  why, 
he  turned  and  dashed  into  the  tim- 
ber-tangle, and  disappeared  as  a 
last  bang  left  him  with  a  stinging 
pain  and  a  useless,  broken  hind 
paw. 

THAT  is  why  the  post-office  was 
called  Four-Bears.  The  Colonel 
seemed  pleased  with  what  he  had 
done;  indeed,  he  told  of  it  himself. 

But  away  up  in  the  woods  of 
Anderson's  Peak  that  night  a  little 


lame  Grizzly  might  have  been  seen 
wandering,  limping  along,  leaving 
a  bloody  spot  each  time  he  tried  to 
set  down  his  hind  paw;  whining 
and  whimpering,  "  Mother!  Mo- 
ther! Oh,  Mother,  where  are  you?" 
for  he  was  cold  and  hungry,  and 
had  such  a  pain  in  his  foot.  But 
there  was  no  Mother  to  come  to 
him,  and  he  dared  not  go  back 
where  he  had  left  her,  so  he  wan- 
dered aimlessly  about  among  the 
pines. 

Then  he  smelled  some  strange 
animal  smell  and  heard  heavy  foot- 
steps; and  not  knowing  what  else 
to  do,  he  climbed  a  tree.  Presently 
a  band  of  great,  long-necked,  slim- 
legged  animals,  taljer  than  his  Mo- 
ther, came  by  under  the  tree.  He 


'HE  STAYED  IN  THE  TREE  TILL  NEAR  MORNING. 


had  seen  such  once  before  and  had 
not  been  afraid  of  them  then,  be- 
cause he  had  been  with  his  Mother. 
But  now  he  kept  very  quiet  in  the 
tree,  and  the  big  creatures  stopped 
picking  the  grass  when  they  were 
near  him,  and  blowing  their  noses, 
ran  out  of  sight. 

He  stayed  in  the  tree  till  near 
morning,  and  then  he  was  so  sti 
with  cold  that  he  could  scarcely 
get  down.  But  the  warm  sun  came 
up,  and  he  felt  better  as  he  sought 
about  for  berries  and  ants,  for  he 
was  very  hungry.  Then  he  went 
back  to  the  Piney  and  put  his 
wounded  foot  in  the  ice-cold  water. 

He  wanted  to  get  back  to  the 
mountains  again,  but  still  he  felt  he 
must  go  to  where  he  had  left  his 


Mother  and  brothers.  When  the 
afternoon  grew  warm,  he  went 
limping  down  the  stream  through 
the  timber,  and  down  on  the  banks 
of  the  Graybull  till  he  came  to  the 
place  where  yesterday  they  had 
had  the  fish-feast;  and  he  eagerly 
crunched  the  heads  and  remains 
that  he  found.  But  there  was  an 
odd  and  horrid  smell  on  the  wind. 
It  frightened  him,  and  as  he  went 
down  to  where  he  last  had  seen  his 
Mother  the  smell  grew  worse.  He 
peeped  out  cautiously  at  the  place, 
and  saw  there  a  lot  of  Coyotes,  tear- 
ing at  something.  What  it  was  he 
did  not  know;  but  he  saw  no  Mo- 
ther, and  the  smell  that  sickened 
and  terrified  him  was  worse  than 
ever,  so  he  quietly  turned  back 


toward  the  timber-tangle  of  the 
Lower  Piney,  and  nevermore  came 
back  to  look  for  his  lost  family. 
He  wanted  his  Mother  as  much 
as  ever,  but  something  told  him  it 
was  no  use. 

As  cold  night  came  down,  he 
missed  her  more  and  more  again, 
and  he  whimpered  as  he  limped 
along,  a  miserable,  lonely,  little, 
motherless  Bear — not  lost  in  the 
mountains,  for  he  had  no  home  to 
seek,  but  so  sick  and  lonely,  and 
with  such  a  pain  in  his  foot,  and  in 
his  stomach  a  craving  for  the  drink 
that  would  nevermore  be  his.  That 
night  he  found  a  hollow  log,  and 
crawling  in,  he  tried  to  dream  that 
his  Mother's  great,  furry  arms  were 
around  him,  and  he  snuffled  him- 
self to  sleep. 


Ill 

AHB  had  always 
been  a  gloomy  little 
Bear;  and  the  string 
of  misfortunes  that 
came  on  him  just  as 
his  mind  was  forming  made  him 
more  than  ever  sullen  and  morose. 
It  seemed  as  though  every  one 
were  against  him.  Hetriedto  keep 
out  of  sight  in  the  upper  woods  of 
the  Piney,  seeking  his  food  by  day 
and  resting  at  night  in  the  hollow 
log.  But  one  evening  he  found  it 
occupied  by  a  Porcupine  as  big  as 


himself  and  as  bad  as  a  cactus-bush. 
Wahb  could  do  nothing  with  him. 
He  had  to  give  up  the  log  and  seek 
another  nest. 

One  day  he  went  down  on  the 
Graybull  flat  to  dig  some  roots  that 
his  Mother  had  taught  him  were 
good.  But  before  he  had  well  be- 
gun, a  grayish-looking  animal  came 
out  of  a  hole  in  the  ground  and 
rushed  at  him,  hissing  and  growl- 
ing. Wahb  did  not  know  it  was  a 
Badger,  but  he  saw  it  was  a  fierce 
animal  as  big  as  himself.  He  was 
sick,  and  lame  too,  so  he  limped 
away  and  never  stopped  till  he  was 
on  a  ridge  in  the  next  canon.  Here 
a  Coyote  saw  him,  and  came  bound- 
ing after  him,  calling  at  the  same 
time  to  another  to  come  and  join 
the  fun.  Wahb  was  near  a  tree,  so 


\  m 


he  scrambled  up  to  the  branches. 
The  Coyotes  came  bounding  and 
yelping  below,  but  their  noses  told 
them  that  this  was  a  young  Grizzly 
they  had  chased,  and  they  soon  de- 
cided that  a  young  Grizzly  in  a  tree 
means  a  Mother  Grizzly  not  far 
away,  and  they  had  better  let  him 
alone. 

After  they  had  sneaked  off  Wahb 
came  down  and  returned  to  the 
Piney.  There  was  better  feeding 
on  the  Graybull,  but  every  one 
seemed  against  him  there  now  that 
his  loving  guardian  was  gone,  while 
on  the  Piney  he  had  peace  at  least 
sometimes,  and  there  were  plenty 
of  trees  that  he  could  climb  when 
an  enemy  came. 

His  broken  foot  was  a  long  time 
in  healing ;  indeed,  it  never  got  quite 


well.  The  wound  healed  and  the 
soreness  wore  off,  but  it  left  a  stiff- 
ness that  gave  him  a  slight  limp, 
and  the  sole-balls  grew  together 
quite  unlike  those  of  the  other  foot. 
It  particularly  annoyed  him  when 
he  had  to  climb  a  tree  or  run  fast 
from  his  enemies;  and  of  them  he 
found  no  end,  though  never  once 
did  a  friend  cross  his  path.  When 
he  lost  his  Mother  he  lost  his  best 
and  only  friend.  She  would  have 
taught  him  much  that  he  had  to 
learn  by  bitter  experience,  and 
would  have  saved  him  from  most 
of  the  ills  that  befell  him  in  his 
cubhood — ills  so  many  and  so  dire 
that  but  for  his  native  sturdiness 
he  never  could  have  passed  through 
alive. 

The  pinons  bore  plentifully  that 


year,  and  the  winds  began  to  show- 
er down  the  ripe,  rich  nuts.  Life 
was  becoming  a  little  easier  for 
Wahb.  He  was  gaining  in  health 
and  strength,  and  the  creatures  he 
daily  met  now  let  him  alone.  But 
as  he  feasted  on  the  pinons  one 
morning  after  a  gale,  a  great  Black- 
bear  came  marching  down  the  hill. 
*  No  one  meets  a  friend  in  the 
woods/  was  a  byword  that  Wahb 
had  learned  already.  H  e  swung  up 
the  nearest  tree.  Atfirstthe  Black- 
bear  was  scared,  for  he  smelled  the 
smell  of  Grizzly;  but  when  he  saw 
it  was  only  a  cub,  he  took  courage 
and  came  growling  at  Wahb.  He 
could  climb  as  well  as  the  little 
Grizzly,  or  better,  and  high  as 
Wahb  went,  the  Blackbear  fol- 


lowed,  and  when  Wahb  got  out  on 
the  smallest  and  highest  twig  that 
would  carry  him,  the  Blackbear 
cruelly  shook  him  off,  so  that  he 
was  thrown  to  the  ground,  bruised 
and  shaken  and  half-stunned.  He 
limped  away  moaning,  and  the  only 
thing  that  kept  the  Blackbear  from 
following  him  up  and  perhaps  kill- 
ing him  was  the  fear  that  the  old 
Grizzly  might  be  about.  So  Wahb 
was  driven  away  down  the  creek 
from  all  the  good  pinon  woods. 

There  was  not  much  food  on  the 
Graybull  now.  The  berries  were 
nearly  all  gone;  there  were  no  fish 
or  ants  to  get,  and  Wahb,  hurt, 
lonely,  and  miserable,  wandered 
on  and  on,  till  he  was  away  down 
toward  the  Meteetsee. 


A  Coyote  came  bounding  and 
barking  through  the  sage-brush 
after  him.  Wahb  tried  to  run,  but 
it  was  no  use ;  the  Coyote  was  soon 
up  with  him.  Then  with  a  sudden 
rush  of  desperate  courage  Wahb 
turned  and  charged  his  foe.  The 
astonished  Coyote  gave  a  scared 
yowl  or  two,  and  fled  with  his  tail 
between  his  legs.  Thus  Wahb 
learned  that  war  is  the  price  of 
peace. 

But  the  forage  was  poor  here; 
there  were  too  many  cattle;  and 
Wahb  was  making  for  a  far-away 
pifion  woods  in  the  Meteetsee 
Canon  when  he  saw  a  man,  just 
like  the  one  he  had  seen  on  that 
day  of  sorrow.  At  the  same  mo- 
ment he  heard  a  bang,  and  some 


'A  SAVAGE  BOBCAT  .   .   .   WARNED  HIM  TO  GO  BACK.' 


sage-brush  rattled  and  fell  just 
over  his  back.  All  the  dreadful 
smells  and  dangers  of  that  day 
came  back  to  his  memory,  and 
Wahb  ran  as  he  never  had  run  be- 
fore. 

He  soon  got  into  a  gully  and  fol- 
lowed it  into  the  canon.  An  open- 
ing between  two  cliffs  seemed  to 
offer  shelter,  but  as  he  ran  toward 
it  a  Range-cow  came  trotting  be- 
tween, shaking  her  head  at  him  and 
snorting  threats  against  his  life. 

He  leaped  aside  upon  a  long  log 
that  led  up  a  bank,  but  at  once  a 
savage  Bobcat  appeared  on  the 
other  end  and  warned  him  to  go 
back.  It  was  no  time  to  quarrel. 
Bitterly  Wahb  felt  that  the  world 
was  full  of  enemies.  But  he  turned 


and  scrambled  up  a  rocky  bank 
into  the  pirion  woods  that  border 
the  benches  of  the  Meteetsee. 

The  Pine  Squirrels  seemed  to 
resent  his  coming,  and  barked  furi- 
ously. They  were  thinking  about 
their  pifion-nuts.  They  knew  that 
this  Bear  was  coming  to  steal  their 
provisions,  and  they  followed  him 
overhead  to  scold  and  abuse  him, 
with  such  an  outcry  that  an  enemy 
might  have  followed  him  by  their 
noise,  which  was  exactly  what  they 
intended. 

There  was  no  one  following,  but 
it  made  Wahb  uneasy  and  nervous. 
So  he  kept  on  till  he  reached  the 
timber  line,  where  both  food  and 
foes  were  scarce,  and  here  on  the 
edge  of  the  Mountain-sheep  land 
v  at  last  he  got  a  chance  to  rest. 

K 


IV 

AHB      never     was 

sweet-tempered  like 
his  baby  sister,  and 
the  persecutions  by 
his  numerous  foes 
were  making  him  more  and  more 
sour.  Why  could  not  they  let  him 
alone  in  his  misery?  Why  was 
every  one  against  him?  If  only 
he  had  his  Mother  back!  If  he 
could  only  have  killed  that  Black- 
bear  that  had  driven  him  from  his 
woods!  It  did  not  occur  to  him 
that  some  day  he  himself  would  be 


big.  And  that  spiteful  Bobcat,  that 
took  advantage  of  him;  and  the 
man  that  had  tried  to  kill  him.  He 
did  not  forget  any  of  them,  and 
he  hated  them  all. 

Wahb  found  his  new  range  fairly 
good,  because  it  was  a  good  nut 
year.  He  learned  just  what  the 
Squirrels  feared  he  would,  for  his 
nose  directed  him  to  the  little  gran- 
aries where  they  had  stored  up 
great  quantities  of  nuts  for  winter's 
use.  It  was  hard  on  the  Squirrels, 
but  it  was  good  luck  for  Wahb,  for 
the  nuts  were  delicious  food.  And 
when  the  days  shortened  and  the 
nights  began  to  be  frosty,  he  had 
grown  fat  and  well-favored. 

He  traveled  over  all  parts  of  the 
canon  now,  living  mostly  in  the 


higher  woods,  but  coming  down  at 
times  to  forage  almost  as  far  as  the 
river.  One  night  as  he  wandered 
by  the  deep  water  a  peculiar  smell 
reached  his  nose.  It  was  quite 
pleasant,  so  he  followed  it  up  to  the 
water's  edge.  It  seemed  to  come 
from  a  sunken  log.  As  he  reached 
over  toward  this,  there  was  a  sud- 
den clank,  and  one  of  his  paws  was 
caught  in  a  strong,  steel  Beaver- 
trap. 

Wahb  yelled  and  jerked  back 
with  all  his  strength,  and  tore  up 
the  stake  that  held  the  trap.  He 
tried  to  shake  it  off,  then  ran  away 
through  the  bushes  trailing  it.  He 
tore  at  it  with  his  teeth ;  but  there 
it  hung,  quiet,  cold,  strong,  and  im- 
movable. Every  little  while  he 


tore  at  it  with  his  teeth  and  claws, 
or  beat  it  against  the  ground.  He 
buried  it  in  the  earth,  then  climbed 
a  low  tree,  hoping  to  leave  it  be- 
hind; but  still  it  clung,  biting  into 
his  flesh.  He  made  for  his  own 
woods,  and  sat  down  to  try  to 
puzzle  it  out.  He  did  not  know 
what  it  was,  but  his  little  green- 
brown  eyes  glared  with  a  mixture 
of  pain,  fright,  and  fury  as  he  tried 
to  understand  his  new  enemy. 

He  lay  down  under  the  bushes, 
and,  intent  on  deliberately  crush  ing 
the  thing,  he  held  it  down  with  one 
paw  while  he  tightened  his  teeth 
on  the  other  end,  and  bearing  down 
as  it  slid  away,  the  trap  jaws  opened 
and  the  foot  was  free.  It  was  mere 
chance,  of  course,  that  led  him  to 


squeeze  both  springs  at  once.  He 
did  not  understand  it,  but  he  did 
not  forget  it,  and  he  got  these  not 
very  clear  ideas :  *  There  is  a  dread- 
ful little  enemy  that  hides  by  the 
water  and  waits  for  one.  It  has  an 
odd  smell.  It  bites  one's  paws  and 
is  too  hard  for  one  to  bite.  But  it 
can  be  got  off  by  hard  squeezing.' 

For  a  week  or  more  the  little 
Grizzly  had  another  sore  paw,  but 
it  was  not  very  bad  if  he  did  not  do 
any  climbing. 

It  was  now  the  season  when  the 
Elk  were  bugling  on  the  mountains. 
Wahb  heard  them  all  night,  and 
once  or  twice  had  to  climb  to  get 
away  from  one  of  the  big-antlered 
Bulls.  It  was  also  the  season  when 
the  trappers  were  coming  into  the 


mountains,  and  the  Wild  Geese 
were  honking  overhead.  There 
were  several  quite  new  smells  in 
the  woods,  too.  Wahb  followed 
one  of  these  up,  and  it  led  to  a 
place  where  were  some  small  logs 
piled  together;  then,  mixed  with 
the  smell  that  had  drawn  him,  was 
one  that  he  hated — he  remem- 
bered it  from  the  time  when  he  had 
lost  his  Mother.  He  sniffed  about 
carefully,  for  it  was  not  very  strong, 
and  learned  that  this  hateful  smell 
was  on  a  log  in  front,  and  the 
sweet  smell  that  made  his  mouth 
water  was  under  some  brush  be- 
hind. So  he  went  around,  pulled 
away  the  brush  till  he  got  the  prize, 
a  piece  of  meat,  and  as  he  grabbed 
it,  the  log  in  front  went  down  with 
a  heavy  chock. 


It  made  Wahb  jump ;  but  he  got 
away  all  right  with  the  meat  and 
some  new  ideas,  and  with  one  old 
idea  made  stronger,  and  that  was, 
'  When  that  hateful  smell  is  around 
it  always  means  trouble.' 

As  the  weather  grew  colder, 
Wahb  became  very  sleepy;  he 
slept  all  day  when  it  was  frosty.  He 
had  not  any  fixed  place  to  sleep  in ; 
he  knew  a  number  of  dry  ledges 
for  sunny  weather,  and  one  or  two 
sheltered  nooks  for  stormy  days. 
He  had  a  very  comfortable  nest  un- 
der a  root,  and  one  day,  as  it  began 
to  blow  and  snow,  he  crawled  into 
this  and  curled  up  to  sleep.  The 
storm  howled  without.  The  snow 
fell  deeper  and  deeper.  It  draped 
the  pine-trees  till  they  bowed,  then 
shook  themselves  clearto  be  draped 


anew. 


It  drifted  over  the  moun- 
tains and  poured  down  the  funnel- 
like  ravines,  blowing  off  the  peaks 
and  ridges,  and  filling  up  the  hol- 
lows level  with  their  rims  It  piled 
up  over  Wahb's  den,  shutting  out 
the  cold  of  the  winter,  shutting  out 
itself:  and  Wahb  slept  and  slept. 


'E  slept  all  winter  with- 
out waking,  for  such 
is  the  way  of  Bears, 
and  yet  when  spring 
came  and  aroused 
him,  he  knew  that  he  had  been 
asleep  a  long  time.  He  was  not 
much  changed — he  had  grown  in 
height,  and  yet  was  but  little  thin- 
ner. He  was  now  very  hungry,  and 
forcing  his  way  through  the  deep 
drift  that  still  lay  over  his  den,  he 
set  out  to  look  for  food. 


There  were  no  pinon-nuts  to  get, 
and  no  berries  or  ants ;  but  Wahb's 
nose  led  him  away  up  the  canon  to 
the  body  of  a  winter-killed  Elk, 
where  he  had  a  fine  feast,  and  then 
buried  the  rest  for  future  use. 

Day  after  day  he  came  back  till 
he  had  finished  it.  Food  was  very 
scarce  for  a  couple  of  months,  and 
after  the  Elk  was  eaten,  Wahb  lost 
all  the  fat  he  had  when  he  awoke. 
One  day  he  climbed  over  the  Di- 
vide into  the  Warhouse  Valley.  It 
was  warm  and  sunny  there,  vege- 
tation was  well  advanced,  and  he 
found  good  forage.  He  wandered 
down  toward  the  thick  timber,  and 
soon  smelled  the  smell  of  another 
Grizzly.  This  grew  stronger  and 
led  him  to  a  single  tree  by  a  Bear- 
trail.  Wahb  reared  up  on  his  hind 


feet  to  smell  this  tree.  Itwasstrong 
of  Bear,  and  was  plastered  with 
mud  and  Grizzly  hair  far  higher 
than  he  could  reach ;  and  Wahb 
knew  that  it  must  have  been  a  very 
large  Bear  that  had  rubbed  him- 
self there.  He  felt  uneasy.  He 
used  to  long  to  meet  one  of  his  own 
kind,  yet  now  that  there  was  a 
chance  of  it  he  was  filled  with 
dread. 

No  one  had  shown  him  anything 
but  hatred  in  his  lonely,  unprotected 
life,  and  he  could  not  tell  what  this 
older  Bear  might  do.  As  he  stood 
in  doubt,  he  caught  sight  of  the  old 
Grizzly  himself  slouching  along  a 
hillside,  stopping  from  time  to  time 
to  dig  up  the  quamash-roots  and 
wild  turnips. 

He  was  a  monster.  Wahbinstinc- 


tively  distrusted  him,  and  sneaked 
away  through  the  woods  and  up  a 
rocky  bluff  where  he  could  watch. 

Then  the  big  fellow  came  on 
Wahb's  track  and  rumbled  a  deep 
growl  of  anger;  he  followed  the 
trail  to  the  tree,  and  rearing  up,  he 
tore  the  bark  with  his  claws,  far 
above  where  Wahb  had  reached. 
Then  he  strode  rapidly  along 
Wahb's  trail.  But  the  cub  had  seen 
enough.  He  fled  back  over  the  Di- 
vide into  the  Meteetsee  Canon,  and 
realized  in  his  dim,  bearish  way 
that  he  was  at  peace  there  because 
the  Bear-forage  was  so  poor. 

As  the  summer  came  on,  his 
coat  was  shed.  His  skin  got  very 
itchy,  and  he  found  pleasure  in 
rolling  in  the  mud  and  scraping  his 


back  against  some  convenient  tree. 
He  never  climbed  now:  his  claws 
were  too  long,  and  his  arms, though 
growing  big  and  strong,  were  losing 
that  suppleness  of  wrist  that  makes 
cub  Grizzlies  and  all  Blackbears 
great  climbers.  He  now  dropped 
naturally  into  the  Bear  habit  of 
seeing  how  high  he  could  reach 
with  his  nose  on  the  rubbing-post, 
whenever  he  was  near  one. 

He  may  not  have  noticed  it,  yet 
each  time  he  came  to  a  post,  after 
a  week  or  two  away,  he  could  reach 
higher,  for  Wahb  was  growing  fast 
and  coming  into  his  strength. 

Sometimes  he  was  at  one  end  of 
the  country  that  he  felt  was  his, 
and  sometimes  at  another,  but  he 
had  frequent  use  for  the  rubbing- 


tree,  and  thus  it  was  that  his  range 
was  mapped  out  by  posts  with  his 
own  mark  on  them. 

One  day  late  in  summer  he 
sighted  a  stranger  on  his  land,  a 
glossy  Blackbear,  and  he  felt  furi- 
ous against  the  interloper.  As  the 
Blackbear  came  nearer  Wahb  no- 
ticed the  tan-red  face,  the  white 
spot  on  his  breast,  and  then  the  bit 
out  of  his  ear,  and  last  of  all  the 
wind  brought  a  whiff.  There  could 
be  no  further  doubt ;  it  was  the  very 
smell:  this  was  the  black  coward 
that  had  chased  him  down  the 
Piney  long  ago.  But  how  he  had 
shrunken!  Before,  he  had  looked 
like  a  giant;  now  Wahb  felt  he 
could  crush  him  with  one  paw.  Re- 
venge is  sweet,  Wahb  felt,  though 


he  did  not  exactly  say  it,  and  he 
went  for  that  red-nosed  Bear.  But 
the  Black  one  went  up  a  small  tree 
like  a  Squirrel.  Wahb  tried  to  fol- 
low as  the  other  once  followed 
him,  but  somehow  he  could  not. 
He  did  not  seem  to  know  how  to 
take  hold  now,  and  after  a  while  he 
gave  it  up  and  went  away,  although 
the  Blackbear  brought  him  back 
more  than  once  by  coughing  in  de- 
rision. Later  on  that  day,  when 
the  Grizzly  passed  again,  the  red- 
nosed  one  had  gone. 

As  the  summer  waned,  the  up- 
per forage-grounds  began  to  give 
out,  and  Wahb  ventured  down  to 
the  Lower  Meteetsee  one  night  to 
explore.  There  was  a  pleasant 
odor  on  the  breeze,  and  following 


it  up,  Wahb  came  to  the  carcass 
of  a  Steer.  A  good  distance  away 
from  it  were  some  tiny  Coyotes, 
mere  dwarfs  compared  with  those 
he  remembered.  Right  by  the  car- 
cass was  another  that  jumped 
about  in  the  moonlight  in  a  fool- 
ish way.  For  some  strange  reason 
it  seemed  unable  to  get  away. 
Wahb's  old  hatred  broke  out.  He 
rushed  up.  In  a  flash  the  Coyote 
bit  him  several  times  before,  with 
one  blow  of  that  great  paw,  Wahb 
smashed  him  into  a  limp,  furry  rag ; 
then  broke  in  all  his  ribs  with  a 
crunch  or  two  of  his  jaws.  Oh, 
but  it  was  good  to  feel  the  hot, 
bloody  juices  oozing  between  his 
teeth! 

The  Coyote  was   caught   in  a 


trap.  Wahb  hated  the  smell  of  the 
iron,  so  he  went  to  the  other  side 
of  the  carcass,  where  it  was  not  so 
strong,  and  had  eaten  but  little  be- 
fore clank,  and  his  foot  was  caught 
in  a  Wolf-trap  that  he  had  not  seen. 
But  he  remembered  that  he  had 
once  before  been  caught  and  had 
escaped  by  squeezing  the  trap. 
He  set  a  hind  foot  on  each  spring 
and  pressed  till  the  trap  opened 
and  released  his  paw^  About  the 
carcass  was  the  smell  that  he  knew 
stood  for  man,  so  he  left  it  and  wan- 
dered down-stream ;  but  more  and 
more  often  he  got  whiffs  of  that  hor- 
rible odor,  so  he  turned  and  went 
back  to  his  quiet  pinon  benches. 


PART  II 

THE  DAYS  OF  HIS  STRENGTH 


I 


'AHB'S  third  sum- 
rner  had  brought 
him  the  stature  of 
a  large-sized  Bear, 
though  not  nearly 
the  bulk  and  power  that  in  time 
were  his.  He  was  very  light-col- 
ored now,  and  this  was  why  Spah- 
wat,  a  Shoshone  Indian  who  more 
than  once  hunted  him,  called  him 
the  Whitebear,  or  Wahb. 

Spahwat  was  a  good  hunter,  and 
as  soon  as  he  saw  the  rubbing-tree 


on  the  Upper  Meteetsee  he  knew 
that  he  was  on  the  range  of  a  big 
Grizzly.  He  bushwhacked  the 
whole  valley,  and  spent  many  days 
before  he  found  a  chance  to  shoot; 
then  Wahb  got  a  stinging  flesh- 
wound  in  the  shoulder.  Hegrowled 
horribly,  but  it  had  seemed  to  take 
the  fight  out  of  him ;  he  scrambled 
up  the  valley  and  over  the  lower 
hills  till  he  reached  a  quiet  haunt, 
where  he  lay  down. 

His  knowledge  of  healing  was 
wholly  instinctive.  He  licked  the 
wound  and  all  around  it,  and  sought 
to  be  quiet.  The  licking  removed 
the  dirt,  and  by  massage  reduced 
the  inflammation,  and  it  plastered 
the  hair  down  as  a  sort  of  dressing 
over  the  wound  to  keep  out  the 


air,   dirt,    and   microbes.     There 
could  be  no  better  treatment. 

But  the  Indian  was  on  his  trail. 
Before  long  the  smell  warned  Wahb 
that  a  foe  was  coming,  so  he  quiet- 
ly climbed  farther  up  the  moun- 
tain to  another  resting-place.  But 
again  he  sensed  the  Indian's  ap- 
proach, and  made  off.  Several 
times  this  happened,  and  at  length 
there  was  a  second  shot  and  an- 
other galling  wound.  Wahb  was 
furious  now.  There  was  nothing 
that  really  frightened  him  but  that 
horrible  odor  of  man,  iron,  and  guns, 
that  he  remembered  from  the  day 
when  he  lost  his  Mother;  but  now 
all  fear  of  these  left  him.  He 
heaved  painfully  up  the  mountain 
again,  and  along  under  a  six-foot 


ledge,  then  up  and  back  to  the  top 
of  the  bank,  where  he  lay  flat.  On 
came  the  Indian,  armed  with  knife 
and  gun ;  deftly,  swiftly  keeping  on 
the  trail ;  gloating  joyfully  over  each 
bloody  print  that  meant  such  an- 
guish to  the  hunted  Bear.  Straight 
up  the  slide  of  broken  rock  he 
came,  where  Wahb,  ferocious  with 
pain,  was  waiting  on  the  ledge.  On 
sneaked  the  dogged  hunter;  his 
eye  still  scanned  the  bloody  slots 
or  swept  the  woods  ahead,  but 
never  was  raised  to  glance  above 
the  ledge.  And  Wahb,  as  he  saw 
this  shape  of  Death  relentless  on 
his  track,  and  smelled  the  hated 
smell,  poised  his  bulk  at  heavy 
cost  upon  his  quivering,  mangled 
arm,  there  held  until  the  proper 


1  HE  STRUCK  ONE  FEARFUL,  CRUSHING  BLOW.' 


instant  came,  then  to  his  sound 
arm's  matchless  native  force  he 
added  all  the  weight  of  desperate 
hate  as  down  he  struck  one  fearful, 
crushing  blow.  The  Indian  sank 
without  a  cry,  and  then  dropped 
out  of  sight.  Wahb  rose,  and 
sought  again  a  quiet  nook  where 
he  might  nurse  his  wounds.  Thus 
he  learned  that  one  must  fight  for 
peace;  for  he  never  saw  that  In- 
dian again,  and  he  had  time  to  rest 
and  recover. 


II 


H  E  years  went  on  as 
before,  except  that 
each  winter  Wahb 
slept  less  soundly, 
and  each  spring  he 
came  out  earlier  and  was  a  bigger 
Grizzly,  with  fewer  enemies  that 
dared  to  face  him.  When  his  sixth 
year  came  he  was  a  very  big,  strong, 
sullen  Bear,  with  neither  friend- 
ship nor  love  in  his  life  since  that 
evil  day  on  the  Lower  Piney. 
No  one  ever  heard  of  Wahb's 


mate.  No  one  believes  that  he  ever 
had  one.  The  love-season  of  Bears 
came  and  went  year  after  year,  but 
left  him  alone  in  his  prime  as  he 
had  been  in  his  youth.  It  is  not 
good  for  a  Bear  to  be  alone;  it  is 
bad  for  him  in  every  way.  His  ha- 
bitual moroseness  grew  with  his 
strength,  and  any  one  chancing  to 
meet  him  now  would  have  called 
him  a  dangerous  Grizzly. 

He  had  lived  in  the  Meteetsee 
Valley  since  first  he  betook  him- 
self there,  and  his  character  had 
been  shaped  by  many  little  adven- 
tures with  traps  and  his  wild  rivals 
of  the  mountains.  But  there  was 
none  of  the  latter  that  henow  feared, 
and  he  knew  enough  to  avoid  the 
first,  for  that  penetrating  odor  of 


man  and  iron  was  a  never-failing 
warning,  especially  after  an  experi- 
ence which  befell  him  in  his  sixth 
year. 

His  ever-reliable  nose  told  him 
that  there  was  a  dead  Elk  down 
among  the  timber. 

He  went  up  the  wind,  and  there, 
sure  enough,  was  the  great  de- 
licious carcass,  already  torn  open 
at  the  very  best  place.  True,  there 
was  that  terrible  man-and-iron 
taint,  but  it  was  so  slight  and  the 
feast  so  tempting  that  after  circling 
around  and  inspecting  the  carcass 
from  his  eight  feet  of  stature,  as  he 
stood  erect,  he  went  cautiously  for- 
ward, and  at  once  was  caught  by 
his  left  paw  in  an  enormous  Bear- 
trap.  He  roared  with  pain  and 


slashed  about  in  a  fury.  But  this 
was  no  Beaver-trap;  it  was  a  big 
forty-pound  Bear-catcher,  and  he 
was  surely  caught. 

Wahb  fairly  foamed  with  rage, 
and  madly  grit  his  teeth  upon  the 
trap.  Then  he  remembered  his 
former  experiences.  He  placed  the 
trap  between  his  hind  legs,  with  a 
hind  paw  on  each  spring,  and 
pressed  down  with  all  his  weight. 
But  it  was  not  enough.  He  dragged 
off  the  trap  and  its  clog,  and  went 
clanking  up  the  mountain.  Again 
and  again  he  tried  to  free  his  foot, 
but  in  vain,  till  he  came  where  a 
great  trunk  crossed  the  trail  a  few 
feet  from  the  ground.  By  chance, 
or  happy  thought,  he  reared  again 
under  this  and  made  a  new  attempt. 


With  a  hind  foot  on  each  spring 
and  his-  mighty  shoulders  under- 
neath the  tree,  he  bore  down 
with  his  titanic  strength :  the  great 
steel  springs  gave  way,  the  jaws 
relaxed,  and  he  tore  out  his  foot. 
So  Wahb  was  free  again,  though 
he  left  behind  a  great  toe  which 
had  been  nearly  severed  by  the 
first  snap  of  the  steel. 

Again  Wahb  had  a  painful  wound 
to  nurse,  and  as  he  was  a  left- 
handed  Bear, — that  is,  when  he 
wished  to  turn  a  rock  over  he  stood 
on  the  right  paw  and  turned  with 
the  left, — one  result  of  this  dis- 
ablement was  to  rob  him  for  a  time 
of  all  those  dainty  foods  that  are 
found  under  rocks  or  logs.  The 
wound  healed  at  last,  but  he  never 


forgot  that  experience,  and  thence- 
forth the  pungent  smell  of  man  and 
iron,  even  without  the  gun  smell, 
never  failed  to  enrage  him. 

Many  experiences  had  taught 
him  that  it  is  better  to  run  if  he 
only  smelled  the  hunter  or  heard 
him  far  away,  but  to  fight  despe- 
rately if  the  man  was  close  at  hand. 
And  the  cow-boys  soon  came  to 
know  that  the  Upper  Meteetsee 
was  the  range  of  a  Bear  that  was 
better  let  alone. 


HI 

'NE  day  after  a  long 
absence  Wahb  came 
into  the  lower  part 
of  his  range,  and  saw 
to  his  surprise  one 
of  the  wooden  dens  that  men  make 
forthemselves.  As  he  came  around 
to  get  the  wind,  he  sensed  the  taint 
that  never  failed  to  infuriate  him 
nowt  and  a  moment  later  he  heard 
a  loud  bang  and  felt  a  stinging  shock 
in  his  left  hind  leg,  the  old  stiff  leg. 
He  wheeled  about,  in  time  to  see  a 
man  running  toward  the  new-made 


shanty.  Had  the  shot  been  in  his 
shoulder  Wahb  would  have  been 
helpless,  but  it  was  not. 

MIGHTY  arms  that  could  toss  pine 
logs  like  broomsticks,  paws  that 
with  one  tap  could  crush  the  biggest 
Bull  upon  the  range,  claws  that 
could  tear  huge  slabs  of  rock  from 
the  mountain-side — what  was  even 
the  deadly  rifle  to  them ! 

WHEN  the  man's  partner  came 
home  that  night  he  found  him  on 
the  reddened  shanty  floor.  The 
bloody  trail  from  outside  and  a 
shaky,  scribbled  note  on  the  back 
of  a  paper  novel  told  the  tale. 

It  was  Wahb  done  it.  I  seen  him  by  the 
spring  and  wounded  him.  I  tried  to  git  on 
the  shanty,  but  he  ketched  me.  My  God, 
how  I  suffer  I  JACK, 


It  was  all  fair.    The  man  had 
invaded  the   Bear's  country,  had 
.i'«  /..^        tried  to  take  the  Bear's  life,  and 
;.      had  lost  his  own.    But  Jack's  part- 
/•  •'       ner  swore  he  would  kill  that  Bear. 
"*  He  took  up  the  trail  and  followed 

it  up  the  canon,  and  there  bush- 
whacked and  hunted  day  after  day. 
He  put  out  baits  and  traps,  and  at 
length  one  day  he  heard  a  crash, 
clatter,  thump,  and  a  huge  rock 
bounded  down  a  bank  into  a  wood, 
scaring  out  a  couple  of  deer  that 
floated  away  like  thistle-down. 
Miller  thought  at  first  that  it  was  a 
land-slide;  but  he  soon  knew  that 
it  was  Wahb  that  had  rolled  the 
boulder  over  merely  for  the  sake 
of  two  or  three  ants  beneath  it. 
The  wind  had  not  betrayed  him, 


so  on  peering  through  the  bush 
Miller  saw  the  great  Bear  as  he 
fed,  favoring  his  left  hind  leg  and 
growling  sullenly  to  himself  at  a 
fresh  twinge  of  pain.  Miller  stea- 
died himself,  and  thought,  "Here 
goes  a  finisher  or  a  dead  miss." 
He  gave  a  sharp  whistle,  the  Bear 
stopped  every  move,  and,  as  he 
stood  with  ears  acock,  the  man 
fired  at  his  head. 

But  at  that  moment  the  great 
shaggy  head  moved,  only  an  infuri- 
ating scratch  was  given,  the  smoke 
betrayed  the  man's  place,  and  the 
Grizzly  made  savage,  three-legged 
haste  to  catch  his  foe. 

Miller  dropped  his  gun  and 
swung  lightly  into  a  tree,  the  only 
large  one  near.  Wahb  raged  in 


vain  against  the  trunk.  He  tore 
off  the  bark  with  his  teeth  and 
claws;  but  Miller  was  safe  beyond 
his  reach.  For  fully  four  hours  the 
Grizzly  watched,  then  gave  it  up, 
and  slowly  went  off  into  the  bushes 
till  lost  to  view.  Miller  watched 
him  from  the  tree,  and  afterward 
waited  nearly  an  hour  to  be  sure 
that  the  Bear  was  gone.  He  then 
slipped  to  the  ground,  got  his  gun, 
and  set  out  for  camp.  But  Wahb 
was  cunning;  he  had  only  seemed 
to  go  away,  and  then  had  sneaked 
back  quietly  to  watch.  As  soon  as 
the  man  was  away  from  the  tree, 
too  far  to  return,  Wahb  dashed 
after  him.  In  spite  of  his  wounds 
the  Bear  could  move  the  faster. 
Within  a  quarter  of  a  mile — well, 


Wahb  did  just  what  the  man  had 
sworn  to  do  to  him. 

Long  afterward  his  friends  found 
the  gun  and  enough  to  tell  the  tale. 

The  claim-shanty  on  the  Me- 
teetsee  fell  to  pieces.  It  never 
again  was  used,  for  no  man  cared 
to  enter  a  country  that  had  but  few 
allurements  to  offset  its  evident 
curse  of  ill  luck,  and  where  such  a 
terrible  Grizzly  was  always  on  the 
war-path. 


IV 


HEN  they  found 
good  gold  on  the 
Upper  Meteetsee. 
Miners  came  in 
pairs  and  wandered 
through  the  peaks,  rooting  up 
the  ground  and  spoiling  the  little 
streams — grizzly  old  men  mostly, 
that  had  lived  their  lives  in  the 
mountain  and  were  themselves 
slowly  turning  into  Grizzly  Bears; 
digging  and  grubbing  everywhere, 
not  for  good,  wholesome  roots,  but 


'"AIN'T  HE  AN  AWFUL  SIZE,  THOUGH?" 


for  that  shiny  yellow  sand  that  they 
could  not  eat;  living  the  lives  of 
Grizzlies,  asking  nothing  but  to  be 
let  alone  to  dig. 

They  seemed  to  understand 
Grizzly  Wahb.  The  first  time  they 
met,  Wahb  reared  up  on  his  hind 
legs,  and  the  wicked  green  light- 
nings began  to  twinkle  in  his  small 
eyes.  The  elder  man  said  to  his 
mate: 

"  Let  him  alone,  and  he  won't 
bother  you." 

"  Ain'the  an  awful  size,  though  ?" 
replied  the  other,  nervously. 

Wahb  was  about  to  charge,  but 
something  held  him  back — a  some- 
thing that  had  no  reference  to  his 
senses,  that  was  felt  only  when 
they  were  still;  a  something  that 


in  Bear  and  Man  is  wiser  than  his 
wisdom,  and  that  points  the  way 
at  every  doubtful  fork  in  the  dim 
and  winding  trail* 

Of  course  Wahb  did  not  under- 
stand what  the  men  said,  but  he 
did  feel  that  there  was  something 
different  here.  The  smell  of  man 
and  iron  was  there,  but  not  of  that 
maddening  kind,  and  he  missed 
the  pungent  odor  that  even  yet 
brought  back  the  dark  days  of  his 
cubhood. 

The  men  did  not  move,  so  Wahb 
rumbled  a  subterranean  growl, 
dropped  down  on  his  four  feet,  and 
went  on. 

Late  the  same  year  Wahb  ran 
j  across  the  red-nosed  Blackbear. 

f  How  that  Bear  did  keep  on  shrink- 


ing !  Wahb  could  have  hurled  him 
across  the  Graybull  with  one  tap 
now. 

But  the  Blackbear  did  not  mean 
to  let  him  try.  He  hustled  his  fat, 
podgy  body  up  a  tree  at  a  rate  that 
made  him  puff.  Wahb  reached  up 
nine  feet  from  the  ground,  and  with 
one  rake  of  his  huge  claws  tore 
off  the  bark  clear  to  the  shining 
white  wood  and  down  nearly  to 
the  ground;  and  the  Blackbear 
shivered  and  whimpered  with  ter- 
ror as  the  scraping  of  those  awful 
claws  ran  up  the  trunk  and  up  his 
spine  in  a  way  that  was  horribly 
suggestive. 

What  was  it  that  the  sight  of 
that  Blackbear  stirred  in  Wahb? 
Was  it  memories  of  the  Upper 


Piney,  long  forgotten ;  thoughts  of 
a  woodland  rich  in  food? 

Wahb  left  him  trembling  up  there 
as  high  as  he  could  get,  and  with- 
out any  very  clear  purpose  swung 
along  the  upper  benches  of  the 
Meteetsee  down  to  the  Graybull, 
around  the  foot  of  the  Rimrock 
Mountain;  on,  till  hours  later  he 
found  himself  in  the  timber-tangle 
of  the  Lower  Piney,  and  among 
the  berries  and  ants  of  the  old 
times. 

He  had  forgotten  what  a  fine 
land  the  Piney  was :  plenty  of  food, 
no  miners  to  spoil  the  streams,  no 
hunters  to  keep  an  eye  on,  and  no 
mosquitos  or  flies,  but  plenty  of 
open,  sunny  glades  and  sheltering 
woods,  backed  up  by  high,  straight 
cliffs  to  turn  the  colder  winds. 


There  were,  moreover,  no  resi- 
dent Grizzlies,  no  signs  even  of 
passing  travelers,  and  the  Black- 
bears  that  were  in  possession  did 
not  count. 

Wc*hb  was  well  pleased.  He 
rolled  his  vast  bulk  in  an  old  Buf- 
falo-wallow, and  rearing  up  against 
a  tree  where  the  Piney  Canon  quits 
the  Graybull  Canon,  he  left  on  it 
his  mark  fully  eight  feet  from  the 
ground. 

In  the  days  that  followed  he 
wandered  farther  and  farther  up 
among  the  rugged  spurs  of  the 
Shoshones,  and  took  possession 
as  he  went.  He  found  the  sign- 
boards of  several  Blackbears,  and 
if  they  were  small  dead  trees  he 
sent  them  crashing  to  earth  with  a 
drive  of  his  giant  paw.  If  they 


were  green,  he  put  his  own  mark 
over  the  other  mark,  and  made  it 
clearer  by  slashing  the  bark  with 
the  great  pickaxes  that  grew  on 
his  toes. 

The  Upper  Piney  had  so  long 
been  a  Blackbear  range  that  the 
Squirrels  had  ceased  storing  their 
harvest  in  hollow  trees,  and  were 
now  using  the  spaces  under  flat 
rocks,  where  the  Blackbears  could 
not  get  at  them;  so  Wahb  found 
this  a  land  of  plenty:  every  fourth 
or  fifth  rock  in  the  pine  woods  was 
the  roof  of  a  Squirrel  or  Chip- 
munk granary,  and  when  he  turned 
it  over,  if  the  little  owner  were 
there,  Wahb  did  not  scruple  to 
flatten  him  with  his  paw  and  de- 
vour him  as  an  agreeable  relish  to 
his  own  provisions. 


And  wherever  Wahb  went  he 
put  up  his  sign-board: 

Trespassers  beware ! 

It  was  written  on  the  trees  as 
high  up  as  he  could  reach,  and 
every  one  that  came  by  understood 
that  the  scent  of  it  and  the  hair  in 
it  were  those  of  the  great  Grizzly 
Wahb. 

If  his  Mother  had  lived  to  train 
him,  Wahb  would  have  known  that 
a  good  range  in  spring  may  be  a 
bad  one  in  summer.  Wahb  found 
out  by  years  of  experience  that  a 
total  change  with  the  seasons  is 
best.  In  the  early  spring  the  Cat- 
tle and  Elk  ranges,  with  their  win- 
ter-killed carcasses,  offer  a  boun- 
tiful feast.  In  early  summer  the 
best  forage  is  on  the  warm  hill- 


sides  where  the  quamash  and  the 
Indian  turnip  grow.  In  late  sum- 
mer the  berry-bushes  along  the 
river-flat  are  laden  with  fruit,  and 
in  autumn  the  pine  woods  gave 
good  chances  to  fatten  for  the  win- 
ter. So  he  added  to  his  range  each 
year.  He  not  only  cleared  out  the 
Blackbears  from  the  Pineyand  the 
Meteetsee,  but  he  went  over  the 
Divide  and  killed  that  old  fellow 
that  had  once  chased  him  out  of 
the  Warhouse  Valley.  And,  more 
than  that,  he  held  what  he  had 
won,  for  he  broke  up  a  camp  of 
tenderfeet  that  were  looking  for  a 
ranch  location  on  the  Middle  Me- 
teetsee; he  stampeded  their  horses, 
and  made  general  smash  of  the 
camp.  And  so  all  the  animals,  in- 


eluding  man,  came  to  know  that 
the  whole  range  from  Frank's  Peak 
to  the  Shoshone  spurs  was  the  pro- 
per domain  of  a  king  well  able  to 
defend  it,  and  the  name  of  that  king 
was  Meteetsee  Wahb. 

Any  creature  whose  strength 
puts  him  beyond  danger  of  open 
attack  is  apt  to  lose  in  cunning. 
Yet  Wahb  never  forgot  his  early 
experience  with  the  traps.  He 
made  it  a  rule  never  to  go  near  that 
smell  of  man  and  iron,  and  that 
was  the  reason  that  he  never  again 
was  caught. 

So  he  led  his  lonely  life  and 
slouched  around  on  the  mountains, 
throwing  boulders  about  like  peb- 
bles, and  huge  trunks  like  match- 
wood, as  he  sought  for  his  daily 


{ 


food.  And  every  beast  of  hill  and 
plain  soon  came  to  know  and  fly  in 
fear  of  Wahb,  the  one  time  hunted, 
persecuted  Cub.  And  more  than 
one  Blackbear  paid  with  his  life  for 
the  ill-deed  of  that  other,  lorn*  ago. 
And  many  a  cranky  Bobcat  flying 
before  him  took  to  a  tree,  and  if 
that  tree  were  dead  and  dry,  Wahb 
heaved  it  down,  and  tree  and  Cat 
alike  were  dashed  to  bits.  Even 
the  proud-necked  Stallion,  leader 
of  the  mustang  band,  thought  well 
for  once  to  yield  the  road.  The 
great,  grey  Timberwolves,  and  the 
Mountain  Lions  too,  left  their  new 
kill  and  sneaked  in  sullen  fear  aside 
when  Wahb  appeared.  And  if,  as 
he  hulked  across  the  sage-covered 
river-flat  sending  the  scared  An- 


telope  skimming  like  birds  before 
him,  he  was  faced  perchance,  by 
some  burly  Range-bull,  too  young 
to  be  wise  and  too  big  to  be  afraid, 
Wahb  smashed  his  skull  with  one 
blow  of  that  giant  paw,  and  served 
him  as  the  Range-cow  would  have 
served  himself  long  years  ago. 

The  All-mother  never  fails  to 
offer  to  her  own,  twin  cups,  one 
gall,  and  one  of  balm.  Little  or 
much  they  may  drink,  but  equally 
of  each.  The  mountain  that  is 
easy  to  descend  must  soon  be 
climbed  again.  The  grinding  hard- 
ship of  Wahb's  early  days,  had 
built  his  mighty  frame.  All  usual 
pleasures  of  a  grizzly's  life  had 
been  denied  him  but  power  be- 
stowed in  more  than  double  share. 


So  he  lived  on  year  after  year, 
unsoftened  by  mate  or  compan- 
ion, sullen,  fearing  nothing,  ready 
to  fight,  but  asking  only  to  be  let 
alone — quite  alone.  He  had  but 
one  keen  pleasure  in  his  sombre 
life — the  lasting  glory  in  his  match- 
less strength — the  small  but  never 
failing  thrill  of  joy  as  the  foe  fell 
crushed  and  limp,  or  the  riven 
boulders  grit  and  heaved  when  he 
turned  on  them  the  measure  of  his 
wondrous  force. 


EVERYTHING  has 

a  smell  of  its  own 
for  those  that  have 
noses  to  smell.  Wahb 
had  been  learning 
smells  all  his  life,  and  knew  the 
meaning  of  most  of  those  in  the 
mountains.  It  was  as  though  each 
and  every  thing  had  a  voice  of  its 
own  for  him;  and  yet  it  was  far 
better  than  a  voice,  for  every  one 
knows  that  a  good  nose  is  better 
than  eyes  and  ears  together.  And 


each  of  these  myriads  of  voices 
kept  on  crying,  "  Here  and  such 
am  I." 

The  juniper-berries,  the  rose- 
hips, the  strawberries,  each  had  a 
soft,  sweet  little  voice,  calling, 
"Here  we  are —  Berries,  Berries/' 

The  great  pine  woods  had  a 
loud,  far-reaching  voice,  "  Here 
are  we,  the  Pine-trees/'  but  when 
he  got  right  up  to  them  Wahb 
could  hear  the  low,  sweet  call  of 
the  pinon-nuts,  "  Here  are  we,  the 
Pinon-nuts." 

And  the  quamash  beds  in  May 
sang  a  perfect  chorus  when  the 
wind  was  right:  "Quamash  beds, 
Quamash  beds." 

And  when  he  got  among  them 
he  made  out  each  single  voice. 


Each  root  had  its  own  little  piece 
to  say  to  his  nose:  "  Here  am  I,  a 
big  Quamash,  rich  and  ripe/'  or 
a  tiny,  sharp  voice,  "Here  am  I, 
a  good-for-nothing,  stringy  little 
root." 

And  the  broad,  rich  russulas  in 
the  autumn  called  aloud,  "  I  am  a 
fat,  wholesome  Mushroom,"  and 
the  deadly  amanita  cried,  "  I  am  an 
Amanita.  Let  me  alone,  or  you'll 
be  a  sick  Bear."  And  the  fairy 
harebell  of  the  canon-banks  sang 
a  song  too,  as  fine  as  its  thread- 
like stem,  and  as  soft  as  its  dainty 
blue;  but  the  warden  of  the  smells 
had  learned  to  report  it  not,  for 
this,  and  a  million  other  such,  were 
of  no  interest  to  Wahb. 

So  every  living  thing  that  moved, 


and  every  flower  that  grew,  and 
every  rock  and  stone  and  shape 
on  earth  told  out  its  tale  and  sang 
its  little  story  to  his  nose.  Day  or 
night,  fog  or  bright  that  great, 
moist  nose  told  him  most  of  the 
things  he  needed  to  know,  or 
passed  unnoticed  those  of  no  con- 
cern, and  he  depended  on  it  more 
and  more.  If  his  eyes  and  ears  to- 
gether reported  so  and  so,  he  would 
not  even  then  believe  it  until  his 
nose  said,  u  Yes;  that  is  right." 

But  this  is  something  that  man 
cannot  understand,  for  he  has  sold 
the  birthright  of  his  nose  for  the 
privilege  of  living  in  towns. 

While  hundreds  of  smells  were 
agreeable  to  Wahb,  thousands 
were  indifferent  to  him,  a  good 


many  were  unpleasant,  and  some 
actually  put  him  in  a  rage. 

He  had  often  noticed  that  if  a 
West  wind  were  blowing  when  he 
was  at  the  head  of  the  Piney 
Canon  there  was  an  odd,  new 
scent.  Some  days  he  did  not  mind 
it,  and  some  days  it  disgusted 
him;  but  he  never  followed  it  up. 
On  other  days  a  north  wind  from 
the  high  Divide  brought  a  most 
awful  smell,  something  unlike  any 
other,  a  smell  that  he  wanted  only 
to  get  away  from. 

WAHB  was  getting  well  past  his 
youth  now,  and  he  began  to  have 
pains  in  the  hind  leg  that  had  been 
wounded  so  often.  After  a  cold 
night  or  a  long  time  of  wet  weather 


he  could  scarcely  use  that  leg,  and 
one  day,  while  thus  crippled,  the 
west  wind  came  down  the  canon 
with  an  odd  message  to  his  nose. 
Wahb  could  not  clearly  read  the 
message,  but  it  seemed  to  say, 
*  Come/  and  something  within  him 
said,  'Go.'  The  smell  of  food  will 
draw  a  hungry  creature  and  disgust 
a  gorged  one.  We  do  not  know 
why,  and  all  that  any  one  can  learn 
is  that  the  desire  springs  from  a 
need  of  the  body.  So  Wahb  felt 
drawn  by  what  had  long  disgusted 
him,  and  he  slouched  up  the  moun- 
tain path, grumbling  to  himself  and 
slapping  savagely  back  at  branches 
that  chanced  to  switch  his  face. 

The  odd  odor  grew  very  strong ; 
it  led  him  where  he  had  never  been 


before — up  a  bank  of  whitish  sand 
to  a  bench  of  the  same  color,  where 
there  was  unhealthy-looking  water 
running  down,  and  a  kind  of  fog 
coming  out  of  a  hole.  Wahb  threw 
up  his  nose  suspiciously — such  a 
peculiar  smell!  He  climbed  the 
bench. 

A  snake  wriggled  across  the 
sand  in  front.  Wahb  crushed  it 
with  a  blow  that  made  the  near 
trees  shiver  and  sent  a  balanced 
boulder  toppling  down,  and  he 
growled  a  growl  that  rumbled  up 
the  valley  like  distant  thunder. 
Then  he  came  to  the  foggy  hole. 
It  was  full  of  water  that  moved 
gently  and  steamed.  Wahb  put  in 
his  foot,  and  found  it  was  quite 
warm  and  that  it  felt  pleasantly  on 


his  skin.  He  put  in  both  feet,  and 
little  by  little  went  in  farther,  caus- 
ing the  pool  to  overflow  on  all 
sides,  till  he  was  lying  at  full  length 
in  the  warm,  almost  hot,  sulphur- 
spring,  and  sweltering  in  the  green- 
ish water,  while  the  wind  drifted 
the  steam  about  overhead. 

There  are  plenty  of  these  sul- 
phur-springs in  the  Rockies,  but 
this  chanced  to  be  the  only  one  on 
Wahb's  range.  He  lay  in  it  for 
over  an  hour;  then,  feeling  that  he 
had  had  enough,  he  heaved  his 
huge  bulk  up  on  the  bank,  and 
realized  that  he  was  feeling  re- 
markably well  and  supple.  The 
stiffness  of  his  hind  leg  was  gone. 

He  shook  the  water  from  his 
shaggy  coat.  A  broad  ledge  in  full 


CAUSING  THE  POOL  TO  OVERFLOW. 


sun-heat  invited  him  to  stretch 
himself  out  and  dry.  But  first  he 
reared  against  the  nearest  tree  and 
left  a  mark  that  none  could  mis- 
take. True,  there  were  plenty  of 
signs  of  other  animals  using  the 
sulphur-bath  for  their  ills;  but 
what  of  it?  Thenceforth  that  tree 
bore  this  inscription,  in  a  language 
of  mud,  hair,  and  smell,  that  every 
mountain  creature  could  read : 

My  bath.     Keep  away  I 

(Signed)         WAHB. 
I] 

H  Wahb  lay 'on  his  belly  till  his 

j/  i  N  back  was  dry,  then  turned  on  his 
f  I  broad  back  and  squirmed  about  in 
i  r  I  a  ponderous  way  till  the  broiling 
:  p*  sun  had  wholly  dried  him.  He 


realized  that  he  was  really  feeling 
very  well  now.  He  did  not  say  to 
himself,  "  I  am  troubled  with  that 
unpleasant  disease  called  rheuma- 
tism, and  sulphur-bath  treatment 
is  the  thing  to  cure  it."  But  what 
he  did  know  was,  "  I  have  dreadful 
pains;  I  feel  better  when  I  am  in 
this  stinking  pool."  So  thenceforth 
he  came  back  whenever  the  pains 
began  again,  and  each  time  he  was 
cured. 


PART  III 


THE  WANING 

W%  "h 

fcfc  fef 

IW*XAf>  ^QA^O; 


I 


'EARS  went  by. 
Wahb  grew  no  big- 
ger,— there  was  no 
need  for  that, — but 
he  got  whiter,  cross- 
er,  and  more  dangerous.  He  really 
had  an  enormous  range  now.  Each 
spring,  after  the  winter  storms 
had  removed  his  notice-boards,  he 
went  around  and  renewed  them. 
It  was  natural  to  do  so,  for,  first  of 
all,  the  scarcity  of  food  compelled 
him  to  travel  all  over  the  range. 


There  were  lots  of  clay  wallows  at 
that  season,  and  the  itching  of  his 
skin,  as  the  winter  coat  began  to 
shed,  made  the  dressing  of  cool, 
wet  clay  very  pleasant,  and  the 
exquisite  pain  of  a  good  scratch- 
ing was  one  of  the  finest  pleasures 
he  knew.  So,  whatever  his  motive, 
the  result  was  the  same:  the  signs 
were  renewed  each  spring. 

At  length  the  Palette  Ranch  out- 
fit appeared  on  the  Lower  Piney, 
and  the  men  got  acquainted  with 
the  'ugly  old  fellow.'  The  Cow- 
punchers,  when  they  saw  him,  de- 
cided they  'had  n't  lost  any  Bears 
and  they  had  better  keep  out  of  his 
way  and  lethim  mind  his  business.' 

They  did  not  often  see  him,  al- 
though his  tracks  and  sign-boards 


were  everywhere.  But  the  owner 
of  this  outfit,  a  born  hunter,  took  a 
keen  interest  in  Wahb.  He  learned 
something  of  the  old  Bear's  his- 
tory from  Colonel  Pickett,  and 
found  out  for  himself  more  than 
the  colonel  ever  knew. 

He  learned  that  Wahb  ranged 
as  far  south  as  the  Upper  Wiggins 
Fork  and  north  to  the  Stinking 
Water,  and  from  the  Meteetsee  to 
the  Shoshones. 

He  found  that  Wahb  knew  more 
about  Bear-traps  than  most  trap- 
pers do;  that  he  either  passed  them 
by  or  tore  open  the  other  end  of  the 
bait-pen  and  dragged  out  the  bait 
without  going  near  the  trap,  and 
by  accident  or  design  Wahb  some- 
times sprang  the  trap  with  one  of 


the  logs  that  formed  the  pen.  This 
ranch-owner  found  also  that  Wahb 
disappeared  from  his  range  each 
year  during  the  heat  of  the  summer, 
as  completely  as  he  did  each  win- 
ter during  his  sleep. 


II 


'ANY  years  ago  a 
wise  government  set 
aside  the  head  wa- 
ters of  the  Yellow- 
stone to  be  a  sanc- 
tuary of  wild  life  forever.  In  the 
limits  of  this  great  Wonderland  the 
ideal  of  the  Royal  Singer  was  to  be 
realized,  and  none  were  to  harm  or 
make  afraid.  No  violence  was  to 
be  offered  to  any  bird  or  beast,  no 
ax  was  to  be  carried  into  its  primi- 
tive forests,  and  the  streams  were 


to  flow  on  forever  unpolluted  by 
mill  or  mine.  All  things  were  to 
bear  witness  that  such  as  this  was 
the  West  before  the  white  man 
came. 

The  wild  animals  quickly  found 
out  all  this.  They  soon  learned 
the  boundaries  of  this  unfenced 
Park,  and,  as  every  one  knows, 
they  show  a  different  nature  within 
its  sacred  limits.  They  no  longer 
shun  the  face  of  man,  they  neither 
fear  nor  attack  him,  and  they  are 
even  more  tolerant  of  one  another 
in  this  land  of  refuge. 

Peace  and  plenty  are  the  sum  of 
earthly  good;  so,  finding  them 
here,  the  wild  creatures  crowd 
into  the  Park  from  the  surround- 
ing country  in  numbers  not  else- 
where to  be  seen. 


The  Bears  are  especially  nu- 
merous about  the  Fountain  Ho- 
tel. In  the  woods,  a  quarter  of  a 
mile  away,  is  a  smooth  open  place 
where  the  steward  of  the  hotel  has 
all  the  broken  and  waste  food  put 
out  daily  for  the  Bears,  and  the  man 
whose  work  it  is  has  become  the 
Steward  of  the  Bears'  Banquet. 
Each  day  it  is  spread,  and  each 
year  there  are  more  Bears  to  par- 
take of  it.  It  is  a  common  thing 
now  to  see  a  dozen  Bears  feast- 
ing there  at  one  time.  They  are 
of  all  kinds  —  Black,  Brown,  Cin- 
namon, Grizzly,  Silvertip,  Roach- 
backs,  big  and  small,  families  and 
rangers,  from  all  parts  of  the  vast 
surrounding  country.  All  seem  to 
realize  that  in  the  Park  no  vio- 
lence is  allowed,  and  the  most  fe- 


rocious  of  them  have  here  put  on 
a  new  behavior.  Although  scores 
of  Bears  roam  about  this  choice  re- 
sort, and  sometimes  quarrel  among 
themselves,  not  one  of  them  has 
ever  yet  harmed  a  man. 

Year  after  year  they  have  come 
and  gone.  The  passing  travellers 
see  them.  The  men  of  the  hotel 
know  many  of  them  well.  They 
know  that  they  show  up  each  sum- 
mer during  the  short  season  when 
the  hotel  is  in  use,  and  that  they 
disappear  again,  no  man  knowing 
whence  they  come  or  whither  they 

One  day  the  owner  of  the  Palette 
Ranch  came  through  the  Park. 
During  his  stay  at  the  Fountain 
Hotel,  he  went  to  the  Bear  ban- 


quet-hall  at  high  meal-tide.  There 
were  several  Blackbears  feasting, 
but  they  made  way  for  a  huge 
Silvertip  Grizzly  that  came  about 
sundown. 

"That,11  said  the  man  who  was 
acting  as  guide,  "is  the  biggest 
Grizzly  in  the  Park;  but  he  is  a 
peaceable  sort,  or  Lud  knows 
what  rd  happen/' 

"  That ! TT  said  the  ranchman,  in 
astonishment,  as  the  Grizzly  came 
hulking  nearer,  and  loomed  up  like 
a  load  of  hay  among  the  piney 
pillars  of  the  Banquet  Hall. "  That! 
If  that  is  not  Meteetsee  Wahb,  I 
never  saw  a  Bear  in  my  life !  Why, 
that  is  the  worst  Grizzly  that  ever 
rolled  a  log  in  the  Big  Horn 
Basin." 


"It  ain't  possible/'  said  the 
other,  "for  he  Ts  here  every  sum- 
mer, July  and  August,  an'  I  reckon 
he  don't  live  so  far  away." 

"Well,  that  settles  it,"  said  the 
ranchman;  "July  and  August  is 
just  the  time  we  miss  him  on  the 
range ;  and  you  can  see  for  yourself 
that  he  is  a  little  lame  behind  and 
has  lost  a  claw  of  his  left  front  foot. 
Now  I  know  where  he  puts  in 
his  summers;  but  I  did  not  sup- 
pose that  the  old  reprobate  would 
know  enough  to  behave  himself 
away  from  home." 

The  big  Grizzly  became  very 
well  known  during  the  successive 
hotel  seasons.  Once  only  did  he 
really  behave  ill,  and  that  was  the 
first  season  he  appeared,  before 


he   fully   knew  the   ways    of   the 
Park. 

He  wandered  over  to  the  hotel, 
one  day,  and  in  at  the  front  door. 
In  the  hall  he  reared  up  his  eight 
feet  of  stature  as  the  guests  fled  in  • 
terror ;  then  he  went  into  the  clerk's 
office.  The  man  said:  "  All  right; 
if  you  need  this  office  more  than  I 
do,  you  can  have  it,"  and  leaping 
over  the  counter,  locked  himself  in 
the  telegraph -off  ice,  to  wire  the 
superintendent  of  the  Park :  "  Old 
Grizzly  in  the  office  now,  seems 
to  want  to  run  hotel;  may  we 
shoot?" 

The  reply  came:  "No  shooting 
allowed  in  Park;  use  the  hose." 
Which  they  did,  and,  wholly  taken 
by  surprise,  the  Bear  leaped  over 


the  counter  too,  and  ambled  out 
the  back  way,  with  a  heavy  thud- 
thudding  of  his  feet,  and  a  rattling 
of  his  claws  on  the  floor.  He 
passed  through  the  kitchen  as  he 
went,  and,  picking  up  a  quarter  of 
beef,  took  it  along. 

This  was  the  only  time  he  was 
known  to  do  ill,  though  on  one  oc- 
casion he  was  led  into  a  breach 
of  the  peace  by  another  Bear. 
This  was  a  large  she-Blackbear 
and  a  noted  mischief-maker.  She 
had  a  wretched,  sickly  cub  that 
she  was  very  proud  of — so  proud 
that  she  went  out  of  her  way  to 
seek  trouble  on  his  behalf.  And 
he,  like  all  spoiled  children,  was 
the  cause  of  much  bad  feeling. 
She  was  so  big  and  fierce  that  she 


fk#, 


could  bully  all  the  other  Black- 
bears,  but  when  she  tried  to  drive 
off  old  Wahb  she  received  a  pat 
from  his  paw  that  sent  her  tumbling 
like  a  football.  He  followed  her 
up,  and  would  have  killed  her,  for 
she  had  broken  the  peace  of  the 
Park,  but  she  escaped  by  climbing 
a  tree,  from  the  top  of  which  her 
miserable  little  cub  was  apprehen- 
sively squealing  at  the  pitch  of  his 
voice.  So  the  affair  was  ended;  in 
future  the  Blackbear  kept  out  of 
Wahb's  way,  and  he  won  the  repu- 
tation of  being  a  peaceable,  well- 
behaved  Bear.  Most  persons  be- 
lieved that  he  came  from  some 
remote  mountains  where  were 
neither  guns  nor  traps  to  make 
him  sullen  and  revengeful. 


Ill 

,VERY  one  knows 
that  a  Bitter-root 
Grizzly  is  a  bad 
Bear.  The  Bitter- 
root  Range  is  the 
roughest  part  of  the  mountains. 
The  ground  is  everywhere  cut  up 
with  deep  ravines  and  overgrown 
with  dense  and  tangled  under- 
brush. 

It  is  an  impossible  country  for 
horses,  and  difficult  for  gunners, 
and  there  is  any  amount  of  good 


Bear-pasture.    So  there  are  plenty 
of  Bears  and  plenty  of  trappers. 

The  Roachbacks,  as  the  Bitter- 
root  Grizzlies  are  called,  are  a 
cunning  and  desperate  race.  An 
old  Roachback  knows  more  about 
traps  than  half  a  dozen  ordinary 
trappers;  he  knows  more  about 
plants  and  roots  than  a  whole  col- 
lege of  botanists.  He  can  tell  to  a 
certainty  just  when  and  where  to 
find  each  kind  of  grub  and  worm, 
and  he  knows  by  a  whiff  whether 
the  hunter  on  his  trail  a  mile  away 
is  working  with  guns,  poison,  dogs, 
traps,  or  all  of  them  together.  And 
he  has  one  general  rule,  which  is 
an  endless  puzzle  to  the  hunter: 
'Whatever  you  decide  to  do,  do  it 
quickly  and  follow  it  right  up.'  So 


when  a  trapper  and  a  Roachback 
meet,  the  Bear  at  once  makes  up 
his  mind  to  run  away  as  hard  as  he 
can,  or  to  rush  at  the  man  and 
fight  to  a  finish. 

The  Grizzlies  of  the  Bad  Lands 
did  not  do  this :  they  used  to  stand 
on  their  dignity  and  growl  like  a 
thunder-storm,  and  so  gave  the 
hunters  a  chance  to  play  their 
deadly  lightning;  and  lightning  is 
wors i  than  thunder  any  day.  Men 
can  get  used  to  growls  that  rumble 
along  the  ground  and  up  one's  legs 
to  ihz  little  house  where  one's 
courage  lives;  but  Bears  cannot 
get  used  to  45—90  soft-nosed  bul- 
lets, and  that  is  why  the  Grizzlies 
of  the  Bad  Lands  were  all  killed 
off. 


So  the  hunters  have  learned 
that  they  never  know  what  a 
Roachback  will  do;  but  they  do 
know  that  he  is  going  to  be  quick 
about  it. 

Altogether  these  Bitter-root 
Grizzlies  have  solved  very  well 
the  problem  of  life,  in  spite  of 
white  men,  and  are  therefore  in- 
creasing in  their  own  wild  moun- 
tains. 

Of  course  a  range  will  hold  only 
so  many  Bears,  and  the  increase 
is  crowded  out;  so  that  when  that 
slim  young  Bald-faced  Roachback 
found  he  could  not  hold  the  range 
he  wanted,  he  went  out  perforce  t 
seek  his  fortune  in  the  world. 

He  was  not  a  big  Bear,  or  e 
would  not  have  been  crowded  <  it; 


but  he  had  been  trained  in  a  good 
school,  so  that  he  was  cunning 
enough  to  get  on  very  well  else- 
where. How  he  wandered  down 
to  the  Salmon  River  Mountains 
and  did  not  like  them;  how  he 
traveled  till  he  got  among  the  barb- 
wire  fences  of  the  Snake  Plains 
and  of  course  could  not  stay  there ; 
how  a  mere  chance  turned  him 
from  going  eastward  to  the  Park, 
where  he  might  have  rested;  how 
he  made  for  the  Snake  River 
Mountains  and  found  more  hunters 
than  berries;  how  he  crossed  into 
the  Tetons  and  looked  down  with 
disgust  on  the  teeming  man  colony 
of  Jackson's  Hole,  does  not  belong 
to  this  history  of  Wahb.  But  when 
Baldy  Roachback crossed  theGros 


Ventre  Range  and  over  the  Wind 
River  Divide  to  the  head  of  the 
Graybull,  he  does  come  into  the 
story,  just  as  he  did  into  the  coun- 
try and  the  life  of  the  Meteetsee 
Grizzly. 

The  Roachback  had  not  found 
a  man-sign  since  he  left  Jackson's 
Hole,  and  here  he  was  in  a  land  of 
plenty  of  food.  He  feasted  on  all 
the  delicacies  of  the  season,  and 
enjoyed  the  easy,  brushless  coun- 
try till  he  came  on  one  of  Wahb's 
sign-posts. 

" Trespassers  beware!"  it  said 
in  the  plainest  manner.  The 
Roachback  reared  up  against  it. 

"Thunder!  whataBear!"  The 
nose-mark  was  a  head  and  neck 
above  Baldy's  highest  reach.  Now, 


a  simple  Bear  would  have  gone 
quietly  away  after  this  discovery; 
but  Baldy  felt  that  the  mountains 
owed  him  a  living,  and  here  was  a 
good  one  if  he  could  keep  out  of 
the  way  of  the  big  fellow.  He 
nosed  about  the  place,  kept  a  sharp 
lookout  for  the  present  owner,  and 
went  on  feeding  wherever  he  ran 
across  a  good  thing. 

A  step  or  two  from  this  ominous 
tree  was  an  old  pine  stump.  In  the 
Bitter-roots  there  are  often  mice- 
nests  under  such  stumps,  and 
Baldy  jerked  it  over  to  see.  There 
was  nothing.  The  stump  rolled 
over  against  the  sign-post.  Baldy 
had  not  yet  made  up  his  mind 
about  it;  but  a  new  notion  came 
into  his  cunning  brain.  He  turned 


'HE  DELIBERATELY  STOOD  UP  ON  THE   PINE  ROOT. 


his  head  on  this  side,  then  on  that. 
He  looked  at  the  stump,  then  at 
the  sign,  with  his  little  pig-like 
eyes.  Then  he  deliberately  stood 
up  on  the  pine  root,  with  his  back 
to  the  tree,  and  put  his  mark  away 
up,  a  head  at  least  above  that  of 
Wahb.  He  rubbed  bis  back  long 
and  hard,  and  he  sought  some 
mud  to  smear  his  head  and  shoul- 
ders, then  came  back  and  made  the 
mark  so  big,  so  strong,  and  so 
high,  and  emphasized  it  with  such 
claw-gashes  in  the  bark,  that  it 
could  be  read  only  in  one  way — 
a  challenge  to  the  present  claimant 
from  some  monstrous  invader,  who 
was  ready,  nay  anxious,  to  fight  to 
a  finish  for  this  desirable  range. 
Maybe  it  was  accident  and  may- 


be  design,  but  when  the  Roach - 
back  jumped  from  the  root  it  rolled 
to  one  side.  Baldy  went  on  down 
the  canon,  keeping  the  keenest 
lookout  for  his  enemy. 

It  was  not  Ions*  before  Wahb 
found  the  trail  of  the  interloper, 
and  all  the  ferocity  of  his  outside- 
the-Park  nature  was  aroused. 

He  followed  the  trail  for  miles 
on  more  than  one  occasion.  But 
the  small  Bear  was  quick-footed  as 
well  as  quick-witted,  and  never 
showed  himself.  He  made  a  point, 
however,  of  calling  at  each  sign- 
post, and  if  there  was  any  means 
of  cheating,  so  that  his  mark  might 
be  put  higher,  he  did  it  with  a  vim, 
and  left  a  big,  showy  record.  But 
if  there  was  no  chance  for  any  but 


a  fair  register,  he  would  not  go 
near  the  tree,  but  looked  for  a  fresh 
tree  near  by  with  some  log  or  side- 
ledge  to  reach  from. 

Thus  Wahb  soon  found  the  in- 
terloper's marks  towering  far  above 
his  own — a  monstrous  Bear  evi- 
dently, that  even  he  could  not  be 
sure  of  mastering.  But  Wahb  was 
no  coward.  He  was  ready  to  fight 
to  a  finish  any  one  that  might 
come ;  and  he  hunted  the  range  for 
that  invader.  Day  after  day  Wahb 
sought  for  him  and  held  himself 
ready  to  fight.  He  found  his  trail 
daily,  and  more  and  more  often  he 
found  that  towering  record  far 
above  his  own.  He  often  smelled 
him  on  the  wind;  but  he  never  saw 
him,  for  the  old  Grizzly's  eyes  had 


grown  very  dim  of  late  years; 
things  but  a  little  way  off  were 
mere  blurs  to  him.  The  continual 
menace  could  not  but  fill  Wahb 
with  uneasiness,  for  he  was  not 
young  now,  and  his  teeth  and  claws 
were  worn  and  blunted.  He  was 
more  than  ever  troubled  with  pains 
in  his  old  wounds,  and  though  he 
could  have  risen  on  the  spur  of  the 
moment  to  fight  any  number  of 
Grizzlies  of  any  size,  still  the  con- 
tinual apprehension,  the  knowledge 
that  he  must  hold  himself  ready  at 
any  moment  to  fight  this  young 
monster,  weighed  on  his  spirits  and 
began  to  tell  on  his  general  health. 


IV 

HE  Roachback's  life 
was  one  of  contin- 
ual vigilance,  always 
ready  to  run,  doub- 
ling and  shifting  to 
avoid  the  encounter thatmust  mean 
instant  death  to  him.  Many  a  time 
from  some  hiding-place  he  watched 
the  great  Bear,  and  trembled  lest 
the  wind  should  betray  him.  Sev- 
eral times  his  very  impudence 
saved  him,  and  more  than  once  he 
was  nearly  cornered  in  a  box- 


canon.  Once  he  escaped  only  by 
climbing  up  a  long  crack  in  a  cliff, 
which  Wahb's  huge  frame  could 
not  have  entered.  But  still,  in  a 
mad  persistence,  he  kept  on  mark- 
ing the  trees  farther  into  the  range. 
At  last  he  scented  and  followed 
up  the  sulphur-bath.  He  did  not 
understand  it  at  all.  It  had  no  ap- 
peal to  him,  but  hereabouts  were 
the  tracks  of  the  owner.  In  a 
spirit  of  mischief  the  Roachback 
scratched  dirt  into  the  spring,  and 
then  seeing  the  rubbing-tree,  he 
stood  sidewise  on  the  rocky  ledge, 
and  was  thus  able  to  put  his  mark 
fully  five  feet  above  that  of  Wahb. 
Then  he  nervously  jumped  down, 
and  was  running  about,  defiling  the 
bath  and  keeping  a  sharp  lookout, 


THE  ROACHBACK  FLED  INTO  THE  WOODS. 


when  he  heard  a  noise  in  the 
woods  below.  Instantly  he  was  all 
alert.  The  sound  drew  near,  then 
the  wind  brought  the  sure  proof, 
and  the  Roachback,  in  terror, 
turned  and  fled  into  the  woods. 

It  was  Wahb.  He  had  been 
failing  in  health  of  late;  his  old 
pains  were  on  him  again,  and,  as 
well  as  his  hind  leg,  had  seized  his 
right  shoulder,  where  were  still 
lodged  two  rifle-balls.  He  was 
feeling  very  ill,  and  crippled  with 
pain.  He  came  up  the  familiar 
bank  at  a  jerky  limp,  and  there 
caught  the  odor  of  the  foe;  then 
he  saw  the  track  in  the  mud — his 
eyes  said  the  track  of  a  small  Bear, 
but  his  eyes  were  dim  now,  and 
his  nose,  his  unerring  nose,  said, 


"This  is  the  track  of  the  huge  in- 
vader/' Then  he  noticed  the  tree 
with  his  sign  on  itt  and  there  be- 
yond doubt  was  the  stranger's  mark 
far  above  his  own.  His  eyes  and 
nose  were  agreed  on  this;  and 
more,  they  told  him  that  the  foe 
was  close  at  hand,  might  at  any 
moment  come. 

Wahb  was  feeling  ill  and  weak 
with  pain.  He  was  in  no  mood  for 
a  desperate  fight.  A  battle  against 
such  odds  would  be  madness  now. 
So,  without  taking  the  treatment, 
he  turned  and  swung  along  the 
bench  away  from  the  direction 
taken  by  the  stranger — the  first 
time  since  his  cubhood  that  he 
had  declined  to  fight. 

That   was    a   turning-point    in 


Wahb's  life.  If  he  had  followed 
up  the  stranger  he  would  have 
found  the  miserable  little  craven 
trembling,  cowering,  in  an  agony 
of  terror,  behind  a  log  in  a  natural 
trap,  a  walled-in  glade  only  fifty 
yards  away,  and  would  surely  have 
crushed  him.  Had  he  even  taken 
the  bath,  his  strength  and  courage 
would  have  been  renewed,  and  if 
not,  then  at  least  in  time  he  would 
have  met  his  foe,  and  his  after  life 
would  have  been  different.  But  he 
had  turned.  This  was  the  fork  in 
the  trail,  but  he  had  no  means  of 
knowing  it. 

He  limped  along,  skirting  the 
lower  spurs  of  the  Shoshones,  and 
soon  came  on  that  horrid  smell 
that  he  had  known  for  years,  but 


*  *£  »*« 

ft          1      Lffi 
f     1    ri 


,?dtf 


never  followed  up  or  understood. 
It  was  right  in  his  road,  and  he 
traced  it  to  a  small,  barren  ravine 
that  was  strewn  over  with  skele- 
tons and  dark  objects,  and  Wahb, 
as  he  passed,  smelled  a  smell  of 
many  different  animals,  and  knew 
by  its  quality  that  they  were  lying 
dead  in  this  treeless,  grassless  hol- 
low. For  there  was  a  cleft  in  the 
rocks  at  the  upper  end,  whence 
poured  a  deadly  gas ;  invisible  but 
heavy,  it  filled  the  little  gulch  like 
a  brimming  poison  bowl,  and  at  the 
lower  end  there  was  a  steady  over- 
flow. But  Wahb  knew  only  that 
the  air  that  poured  from  it  as  he 
passed  made  him  dizzy  and  sleepy, 
and  repelled  him,  so  that  he  got 
quickly  away  from  it  and  was  glad 
once  more  to  breathe  the  piny  wind. 


Once  Wahb  decided  to  retreat, 
it  was  all  too  easy  to  do  so  next 
time ;  and  the  result  worked  double 
disaster.  For,  since  the  big  stranger 
was  allowed  possession  of  the  sul- 
phur-spring, Wahb  felt  that  he 
would  rather  not  go  there.  Some- 
times when  he  came  across  the 
traces  of  his  foe,  a  spurt  of  his  old 
courage  would  come  back.  He 
would  rumble  that  thunder-growl 
as  of  old,  and  go  painfully  lumber- 
ing along  the  trail  to  settle  the  thing 
right  then  and  there.  But  he  never 
overtook  the  mysterious  giant,  and 
his  rheumatism,  growing  worse 
now  that  he  was  barred  fro'.i  the 
cure,  soon  made  him  daily  less 
capable  of  either  running  or  fight- 
ing. 

Sometimes  Wahb  would  sense 


his  foefs  approach  when  he  was 
in  a  bad  place  for  fighting,  and, 
without  really  running,  he  would 
yield  to  a  wish  to  be  on  a  better 
footing,  where  he  would  have  a 
fair  chance.  This  better  footing 
never  led  him  nearer  the  enemy, 
for  it  is  well  known  that  the  one 
awaiting  has  the  advantage. 

Some  days  Wahb  felt  so  ill  that 
it  would  have  been  madness  to  have 
staked  everything  on  a  fight,  and 
when  he  felt  well  or  a  little  better, 
the  stranger  seemed  to  keep  away. 

Wahb  soon  found  that  the  stran- 
ger's track  was  most  often  on  the 
Warhouse  and  the  west  slope  of 
the  Piney,  the  very  best  feeding- 
grounds.  To  avoid  these  when  he 
did  not  feel  equal  to  fighting  was 


d 


only  natural,  and  as  he  was  always 
in  more  or  less  pain  now,  it  amount- 
ed to  abandoning  to  the  stranger 
the  best  part  of  the  range.  X  *"" 

Weeks    went    by.     Wahb    had  / 

meant  to  go  back  to  his  bath,  but  '  v,         '\ 

he    never    did.     His    pains   grew  v   ¥\^ 

worse;  he  was  now  crippled  in  his  *    -^*(' 

right  shoulder  as  well  as  in  his 
hind  leg.  & 

The  long  strain  of  waiting  for 
the  fight  begot  anxiety,  that  grew 
to  be   apprehension,  which,  with    ^ 
the  sapping  of  his  strength,  was    ^ 
breaking  down  his  courage,  as  it 
always    must    when    courage    is 
founded  on  muscular  force.    His 
daily  care  now  was  not  to  meet  and 
fight  the  invader,  but  to  avoid  him 
till  he  felt  better. 


Thus  that  first  little  retreat  grew 
into  one  long  retreat.  Wahb  had 
to  go  farther  and  farther  down  the 
Piney  to  avoid  an  encounter.  He 
was  daily  worse  fed,  and  as  the 
weeks  went  by  was  daily  less  able 
to  crush  a  foe. 

He  was  living  and  hiding  at  last 
on  the  Lower  Piney — the  very 
place  where  once  his  Mother  had 
Drought  him  with  his  little  brothers. 
The  life  he  led  now  was  much  like 
the  one  he  had  led  after  that  dark 
day.  Perhaps  for  the  same  reason. 
If  he  had  had  a  family  of  his  own 
all  might  have  been  different.  As 
he  limped  along  one  morning,  seek- 
ing among  the  barren  aspen  groves 
for  a  few  roots,  or  the  wormy 
partridge-berries  that  were  too  poor 


to  interest  the  Squirrel  and  the 
Grouse,  he  heard  a  stone  rattle 
down  the  western  slope  into  the 
woods,  and,  a  little  later,  on  the 
wind  was  borne  the  dreaded  taint. 
He  waded  through  the  ice-cold 
Piney, — oncehe  would  have  leaped 
it, — and  th  e  ch  ill  water  sent  th  ro  ugh 
and  up  each  great  hairy  limb  keen 
pains  that  seemed  to  reach  his  very 
life.  He  was  retreating  again — 
which  way?  There  seemed  but 
one  way  now — toward  the  new 
ranch-house. 

But  there  were  signs  of  stir 
about  it  long  before  he  was  near 
enough  to  be  seen.  His  nose,  his 
trustiest  friend,  said,  "Turn,  turn 
and  seek  the  hills/'  and  turn  he  did 
even  at  the  risk  of  meeting  there 


the  dreadful  foe.  He  limped  pain- 
fully along  the  north  bank  of  the 
Piney,  keeping  in  the  hollows  and 
among  the  trees.  He  tried  to  climb 
a  cliff  that  of  old  he  had  often 
bounded  up  at  full  speed.  When 
half-way  up  his  footing  gave  way, 
and  down  he  rolled  to  the  bottom. 
A  long  way  round  was  now  the  only 
road,  for  onward  he  must  go — on 
—  on.  But  where?  There  seemed 
no  choice  now  but  to  abandon  the 
whole  range  to  the  terrible  stranger. 
And  feeling,  as  far  as  a  Bear  can 
feel,  that  he  is  fallen,  defeated,  de- 
throned at  last,  that  he  is  driven 
from  his  ancient  range  by  a  Bear 
too  strong  for  him  to  face,  he  turned 
up  the  west  fork,  and  the  lot  was 
drawn.  The  strength  and  speed 


were  gone  from  his  once  mighty 
limbs;  he  took  three  times  as  long 
as  he  once  would  to  mount  each 
well-known  ridge,  and  as  he  went 
he  glanced  backward  from  time  to 
time  to  know  if  he  were  pursued. 
Away  up  the  head  of  the  little 
branch  were  the  Shoshones,  bleak, 
forbidding ;  no  enemies  were  there, 
and  the  Park  was  beyond  it  all  — 
on,  on  he  must  go.  But  as  he 
climbed  with  shaky  limbs,  and 
short  uncertain  steps,  the  west  wind 
brought  the  odor  of  Death  Gulch, 
that  fearful  little  valley  where  every- 
thing was  dead,  where  the  very  air 
was  deadly.  It  used  to  disgust  him 
and  drive  him  away,  but  now  Wahb 
felt  that  it  had  a  message  for  him; 
he  was  drawn  by  it.  It  was  in  his 


line  of  flight,  and  he  hobbled  slowly 
toward  the  place.  He  went  nearer, 
nearer,  until  he  stood  upon  the 
entering  ledge.  A  Vulture  that  had 
descended  to  feed  on  one  of  the 
victims  was  slowly  going  to  sleep 
on  the  untouched  carcass.  Wahb 
swung  his  great  grizzled  muzzle 
and  his  long  white  beard  in  the 
wind.  The  odor  that  he  once  had 
hated  was  attractive  now.  There 
was  a  strange  biting  quality  in  the 
air.  His  body  craved  it.  For  it 
seemed  to  numb  his  pain  and  it 
promised  sleep,  as  it  did  that  day 
when  first  he  saw  the  place. 

Far  below  him,  to  the  right  and 
to  the  left  and  on  and  on  as  far  as 
the  eye  could  reach,  was  the  great 
kingdom  that  once  had  been  his; 


where  he  had  lived  for  years  in  the 
glory  of  his  strength;  where  none 
had  dared  to  meet  him  face  to  face. 
The  whole  earth  could  show  no 
view  more  beautiful.  But  Wahb 
had  no  thought  of  its  beauty;  he 
only  knew  that  it  was  a  good  land 
to  live  in ;  that  it  had  been  his,  but 
that  now  it  was  gone,  for  his 
strength  was  gone,  and  he  was  fly- 
ing to  seek  a  place  where  he  could 
rest  and  be  at  peace. 

Away  over  the  Shoshones,  in- 
deed, was  the  road  to  the  Park, 
but  it  was  far,  far  away,  with  a 
doubtful  end  to  the  long,  doubtful 
journey.  But  why  so  far?  Here  in 
this  little  gulch  was  all  he  sought; 
here  were  peace  and  painless  sleep. 
He  knew  it;  for  his  nose,  his 


never-erring   nose,   said,    "Here! 
here  nowl" 

He  paused  a  moment  at  the  gate, 
and  as  he  stood  the  wind-borne 
fumes  began  their  subtle  work. 
Five  were  the  faithful  wardens  of 
his  life,  and  the  best  and  trustiest 
of  them  all  flung  open  wide  the 
door  he  long  had  kept.  A  moment 
still  Wahb  stood  in  doubt.  His 
lifelong  guide  was  silent  now,  had 
given  up  his  post.  But  another 
sense  he  felt  within.  The  Angel  of 
the  Wild  Things  was  standing 
there,  beckoning,  in  the  little  vale. 
Wahb  did  not  understand.  He  had 
no  eyes  to  see  the  tear  in  the 
Angel's  eyes,  nor  the  pitying  smile 
that  was  surely  on  his  lips.  He 
could  not  even  see  the  Angel.  But 
he  felt  him  beckoning,  beckoning. 


"HE  PAUSED  A  MOMENT  AT  THE  GATE. 


A  rush  of  his  ancient  courage 
surged  in  the  Grizzly's  rugged 
breast.  He  turned  aside  into  the 
little  gulch.  The  deadly  vapors 
entered  in,  filled  his  huge  chest 
and  tingled  in  his  vast,  heroic 
limbs  as  he  calmly  lay  down  on  the 
rocky,  herbless  floor  and  as  gently 
went  to  sleep,  as  he  did  that  day  in 
his  Mother's  arms  by  the  Graybull, 
long  ago. 


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